HIV positive men as fathers: Accounts of displacement, ir/responsibility and paternal emergence.

Sean Highton,Mark D Finn

doi:10.1177/1363459315583157

Abstract

It is now apparent that socio-cultural constructions of masculinity variously impact men's experiences of their HIV positive status, yet how being a father can feature in this mix remains under-researched. This study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews and Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis to explore the accounts of six self-identifying heterosexual fathers (four Black African migrants, two White European) who had been living with HIV from 5 to 24 years. While the HIV-related literature calls for the need to subvert 'traditional' expressions of masculinity as a means of promoting HIV prevention and HIV health, we argue that the lived experience for HIV positive men as fathers is more socially, discursively and thus more psychologically nuanced. We illustrate this by highlighting ways in which HIV positive men as fathers are not simply making sense of themselves as a HIV positive man for whom the modern (new) man and father positions are useful strategies for adapting to HIV and combating associated stigma. Discourses of modern and patriarchal fatherhoods, a gender-specific discourse of irresponsibility and the neoliberal conflation of heath and self-responsibility are also at work in the sense-making frames that HIV positive men, who are also fathers, can variously deploy. Our analysis shows how this discursive mix can underpin possibilities of often conflicted meaning and identity when living as a man and father with HIV in the United Kingdom, and specifically how discourses of fatherhood and HIV 'positive' health can complicate these men's expressions and inhabitations of masculinity.

Highlights

While the effects of living with an HIV diagnosis has been widely researched in relation to gay/bisexual men, women and motherhood, less is known about HIV positive heterosexual men, and less still about HIV positive men who are fathers
Our small-scale study aims to address the lack of research relating to HIV positive fathers by exploring the accounts of six HIV positive heterosexual fathers living in London
As we referred to earlier, there is valid argument in the HIV-related literature that the health and well-being of HIV positive men could be well served by encouraging the uptake of less gender differentiated expressions of masculinity (e.g. Doyal et al, 2009; Enderstein and Boonzaier, 2013; Reid and Walker, 2005)

Summary

Introduction

While the effects of living with an HIV diagnosis has been widely researched in relation to gay/bisexual men, women and motherhood, less is known about HIV positive heterosexual men, and less still about HIV positive men who are fathers. The argument we make is that current emphasis on the subversion of so-called ‘traditional’ expressions of masculinity as a way of promoting HIV prevention and HIV health serves to occlude ways in which familiar forms of masculinity can usefully feature in men’s emergences from the perceived crisis of HIV. Such emphasis in current health promotion discourse, we suggest, does not acknowledge the complex socio-discursive contexts and identity plurality that HIV positive men, as fathers, can variously and productively adopt

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion