Workable Sisterhood (ebook)

Argumento de Workable Sisterhood (ebook)

Workable Sisterhood is an empirical look at sixteen HIV-positive women who have a history of drug use, conflict with the law, or a history of working in the sex trade. What makes their experience with the HIV/AIDS virus and their political participation different from their counterparts of people with HIV? Michele Tracy Berger argues that it is the influence of a phenomenon she labels "intersectional stigma," a complex process by which women of color, already experiencing race, class, and gender oppression, are also labeled, judged, and given inferior treatment because of their status as drug users, sex workers, and HIV-positive women.

The work explores the barriers of stigma in relation to political participation, and demonstrates how stigma can be effectively challenged and redirected.

The majority of the women in Berger's book are women of color, in particular African Americans and Latinas. The study elaborates the process by which these women have become conscious of their social position as HIV-positive and politically active as activists, advocates, or helpers. She builds a picture of community-based political participation that challenges popular, medical, and scholarly representations of "crack addicted prostitutes" and HIV-positive women as social problems or victims, rather than as agents of social change. Berger argues that the women's development of a political identity is directly related to a process called "life reconstruction." This process includes substance- abuse treatment, the recognition of gender as a salient factor in their lives, and the use of nontraditional political resources.

"This work would be a stellar accomplishment by any seasoned scholar. That this is Berger's sociological 'debut' . . . is impressive and bodes well for future research into gender, inequality and deviance."--Tammy L. Anderson, Theoretical Criminology

"Berger's Workable Sisterhood . . . demonstrates all the elements necessary to elevate an interview/ethnographic report beyond oral history."--Arthur W. Frank, Qual Sociol

"This work . . . brought new emphasis to the significance of the relationship between social identity and stigma. . . . [T]his research, which Berger found challenging throughout, points to a possibility for change that resides within many individuals society has written off as lost."--Betsy L. Fife, American Journal of Sociology

"An important contribution to the sociology of AIDS and to feminist writing concerning women who are multiply stigmatized by racism, poverty, sexual abuse, drug use, and gender."--Nancy Stoller, University of California, Santa Cruz, author of Lessons from the Damned: Queers, Whores, and Junkies Respond to AIDS

"Groundbreaking! Workable Sisterhood expands the discussion of the new face of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and it introduces unique qualitative empirical data. I am unaware of any other book that enables the reader to hear firsthand women's personal stories of addiction, infection, and personal transformation. Berger's scholarship sets a feminist standard in work on stigmatized women by presenting such women as actors and thinkers, rather than victims and voiceless research data."--Julia Sudbury, Mills College, author of Other Kinds of Dreams: Black Women's Organizations and the Politics of Transformation0Acknowledgments ix
Chapter One: The Politics of Intersectional Stigma for Women with HIV/AIDS 1
An Overview of the Story 2
The New "Face" of HIV//AIDS 6
Women's Community Work: Broadening the Definition of What Constitutes Politics 7
Intersectionality 18
Stigma and Marginality 22
Intersectional Stigma 24
Coming Out of the Shadows: Stigmatized Women and Politics 36
Chapter Two: Women's Narrative Bio-Sketches 37
Advocates 38
Activists 50
Helpers 58
Life Lessons 65
Chapter Three: Capturing the Research Journey/Listening to Women's Lives 68
Section One: Finding the Women 68
Section Two: Why Did She Say That?
Creating and Analyzing Oral Narratives 79
Limitations of the Study 85
Chapter Four: Narratives of Injustice: Discovery of the HIV/AIDS Virus 87
Narratives of Injustice 88
Consequences of the Discovery of the HIV/AIDS Virus 99
Intersectional Stigma as a Contributing Factor 102
Chapter Five Life Reconstruction and the Development of Nontraditional Political Resources 105
What Is Life Reconstruction?105
The Role of Resources 106
External Resources 107
Chapter Six: Life Reconstruction and Gender 119
Aspects of Respondents' Gender Identity before HIV//AIDS and Life Reconstruction 119
Redirecting HIV-Stigma Related to Sex Work 121
Sexual Self-(Re)Education and Empowerment 129
Development of a Public Voice: What It Means to Be a Woman with HIV 133
Consequences of Not Developing a Public Voice 139
Chapter Seven: Making Workable Sisterhood Possible: The Multiple Expressions of Political Participation 143
The Women's Distrust of Conventional Politics 143
Blended and Overlapping Roles 150
Narrative Features of Participation 180
Chapter Eight: Looking to the Future: Struggle and Commitment for Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS 186
Collective Stories 186
Policy, Prevention, and Treatment Implications 190
Appendix 193
Notes 195
Bibliography 209
Index 225