E-confession as a Disciplinary Technology and the AIDS Subject

Abstract

In 1984, I first heard about the homosexual disease . The following days passed in shame and fear; shame for my homosexual impulses and fear for the fatal illness which would punish me for them. Only fourteen-years-old, sexually aware but innocent, and my interpretation of AIDS was a mixture of a death-sentence, a discipline mechanism and a divine punishment. Being a teenage homosexual in the moral panic period (1982-1985), where AIDS was mediated as the gay plague as God s or nature s judgment on moral decay meant that the feelings of moral and social guilt would be a part of your maturation experience (Weeks, Jeffrey, 1989, 4-5). Although my interpretation of AIDS throughout the years changed, my pubic notions of the plague became an inseparable part of my sexuality and my encounters with the AIDS subjects and objects. About two years ago, while searching on the internet for recent HIV statistics and data I found a site named avert.org, where carriers and patients publish their personal stories. AVERT is an international HIV and AIDS socialwelfare organization, located in the UK, that claims to have three aims: first, to educate the people globally, second, to fight the stigma and discrimination surrounding the disease , and finally, to raise money for medical research and treatment (AVERT.ORG, 2002, http://www.avert.org/about.htm). Intrigued by these digital forms of confession, I clicked on the Personal Stories section and began reading the electronic letters. There, I found this article s topic. Keywords: Homosexuality, AIDS, Discipline, Punishment