4 Chemsex among gay men living with HIV aged over 45 in England and Italy: sociality and pleasure in times of undetectability
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Cesare Di Feliciantonio
Abstract
In recent years, chemsex has become the object of intense public scrutiny, mainly based on pathologising and panic-raising narratives. Building on critical contributions across the social sciences and cultural studies, the chapter focuses on an underexplored dimension within the literature on chemsex: ageing with HIV. Centred around the narratives of self-identified gay men living with HIV, aged over 45 and who practise chemsex, in England and Italy, the chapter analyses the relationship between their life courses and their engagement with chemsex. Data analysis reveals how research participants frame their engagement with chemsex as driven by the quest for sociality combined with a rediscovery of sexual pleasure and an improved sense of comfort with their bodies resulting from the emergence of the paradigm of undetectability. However, through the adoption of an intergenerational and intersectional perspective, the chapter reveals also ambivalences and tensions within participants’ engagement with chemsex.
Abstract
In recent years, chemsex has become the object of intense public scrutiny, mainly based on pathologising and panic-raising narratives. Building on critical contributions across the social sciences and cultural studies, the chapter focuses on an underexplored dimension within the literature on chemsex: ageing with HIV. Centred around the narratives of self-identified gay men living with HIV, aged over 45 and who practise chemsex, in England and Italy, the chapter analyses the relationship between their life courses and their engagement with chemsex. Data analysis reveals how research participants frame their engagement with chemsex as driven by the quest for sociality combined with a rediscovery of sexual pleasure and an improved sense of comfort with their bodies resulting from the emergence of the paradigm of undetectability. However, through the adoption of an intergenerational and intersectional perspective, the chapter reveals also ambivalences and tensions within participants’ engagement with chemsex.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ introduction xi
- Foreword: Dare we hope for the erotic? HIV/AIDS, sexuality and ageing xxi
- Introduction 1
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Women
- The ‘disease of love’: trajectories of women ageing with HIV in Switzerland 11
- Beyond the biomedical: HIV as a barrier to intimacy for older women living with HIV in the United Kingdom 28
- ‘Everyone is on their own and nobody needs us’: women ageing with HIV in Ukraine 46
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Gay and bisexual men
- Chemsex among gay men living with HIV aged over 45 in England and Italy: sociality and pleasure in times of undetectability 67
- Freed from fear: reconstructing older gay male sexuality through PrEP – an account of a generational experience 84
- In the company of men: gay culture and HIV in Aotearoa New Zealand 102
- Growing old with stigma: a case study of four older Chinese gay/bisexual men living with HIV in Hong Kong 114
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Intersectional lives, multiple stigmas
- Out in Africa: facing the HIV other in Nairobi 139
- Survival of an older Bangladeshi lesbian experiencing intersectional vulnerability 159
- Sanjeevani: early ageing and HIV survival in queer Mumbai 174
- Afterword 191
- Index 194
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Notes on contributors vii
- Series editors’ introduction xi
- Foreword: Dare we hope for the erotic? HIV/AIDS, sexuality and ageing xxi
- Introduction 1
-
Women
- The ‘disease of love’: trajectories of women ageing with HIV in Switzerland 11
- Beyond the biomedical: HIV as a barrier to intimacy for older women living with HIV in the United Kingdom 28
- ‘Everyone is on their own and nobody needs us’: women ageing with HIV in Ukraine 46
-
Gay and bisexual men
- Chemsex among gay men living with HIV aged over 45 in England and Italy: sociality and pleasure in times of undetectability 67
- Freed from fear: reconstructing older gay male sexuality through PrEP – an account of a generational experience 84
- In the company of men: gay culture and HIV in Aotearoa New Zealand 102
- Growing old with stigma: a case study of four older Chinese gay/bisexual men living with HIV in Hong Kong 114
-
Intersectional lives, multiple stigmas
- Out in Africa: facing the HIV other in Nairobi 139
- Survival of an older Bangladeshi lesbian experiencing intersectional vulnerability 159
- Sanjeevani: early ageing and HIV survival in queer Mumbai 174
- Afterword 191
- Index 194
