Viral fantasies: exploring the eroticising of HIV

Abstract

Drawing on an empirical study that included a background literature research, a sensitising analysis of web-based materials and interviews with 21 gay men who erotise HIV infection, this thesis develops an ethnographic exploration of what is commonly termed ‘bugchasing’. First, it provides a review of the available literature. Second, it outlines the development of a methodology that is flexible in its categories, reflexive about its reliance on the internet, and avoids reducing men who eroticise HIV infection to a limited ‘bugchaser’ identity category. The thesis develops a framework for understanding bugchasing as fantasy and reality, in which both realms remain distinct in some of their effects and consequences but are also porous to one another and fluid. I argue that bugchasing is never entirely real or fantastical, but always a mixture of both. Following this, the thesis identifies three broad contextual factors that are key to understanding bugchasing. The first is the internet, and how bugchasers use the web to experiment with their desires and give them a name, and how different meanings emerge for the diverse forms of web engagement as well as their socio-cultural position. The analysis of participants’ narratives of their use of the internet in bugchasing questions the existence of a causal relationship between online and offline behaviours. The second contextual factor is linked to medical interventions, and how bugchasers feel about PrEP (a medical intervention that can prevent HIV infection) and use it. While some participants attributed negative meanings to PrEP and viewed it as emasculating and as a barrier to intimacy, others viewed it more positively, for example as training wheels for unprotected bugchasing. Participants also recounted experimenting with discontinuing PrEP as a form of negotiating their desires for bugchasing. The third contextual factor is linked to participants’ experiences and perceptions of the aftermath of infection, and the implications for sexual subjectivity and practices as a person living with HIV. This explores how men engage in decision making about whether they will choose to infect others or not and whether they will take medication or not. The thesis concludes by suggesting that the study of bugchasing can be an inroad to develop a sociology of fantasy and reality that explores the sexual fantasies as interesting in and of themselves and considers the daily routines and practices associated with them. I suggest how such a sociology may be extended to other practices beyond bugchasing.

Date of Award	1 Oct 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Richie Nimmo (Co Supervisor) & Brian Heaphy (Main Supervisor)