Analyzing Primary Sources on the History of Medicine and Sexuality

Analyzing Primary Sources on the History of Medicine and Sexuality

Prepare a 1250-1500 word essay (~5-6 pages) addressing the following question:

How did medical interventions reflect or influence ideas and practices surrounding sexuality?

To prepare your essay, analyze at least one of the following primary sources from:
Any or all of newspapers on HIV/AIDS:
Michael Specter, AIDS Onrush Sends Russia to the Edge of an Epidemic, The New York Times, May 18, 1997
In Debate on AIDS, South Africas Leaders Defend Mavericks, The New York Times, April 21, 2000
Geeta Pandey, The woman who discovered Indias first HIV cases, BBC News, August 30, 2016
Charlene Flash, San Francisco is Beating HIV. Why cant Houston? The New York Times, March 1, 2019
Loretta Lynns 1975 song The Pill
The clip from the 1982 documentary La Operacin
The 1969 Bolivian film Blood of the Condor

AND

include discussion of at least one of the following assigned scholarly readings from:

GHS, Chapter 4: Laura J. McGough and Katherine E. Bliss, Sex and Disease from Syphilis to AIDS, pp. 89-118.
GHS, Chapter 5: Eithne Luibhid, Sexuality and International Migration, pp. 119-150.
Elanah Uretsky, The Risk of Success: Cultural Determinants of Chronic Disease and Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Urban Chinese Men, Health Promotion International 26:2 (Nov. 2011), pp. 212-219.
Laura Harrison, I Am the Babys Real Mother: Reproductive Tourism, Race, and the Transnational Construction of Kinship, Women Studies International Forum 46 (2014), pp. 145-56.

The goal of this assignment is not to summarize the texts, but rather to use the assigned readings to help you analyze the primary sources. Your paper should contain a thesis/argument in the introductory paragraph that addresses the essay prompt. You should develop this thesis through the rest of the paper with supporting evidence.

Here are some additional questions to consider as you develop your argument. Please note that these questions are merely for your consideration and are not intended to limit the scope of your essay.

How did medical or government health interventions targeting sexuality or reproduction reinforce divisions around race, gender, or class?
When and why did certain medical or legal interventions become transnational?
What was the impact of medical interventions on prevailing ideas about sex or sexuality?

Format: If possible, please use double-spacing with 12-point font and one-inch margins all around. Your paper should include your name, the date, and your papers title.

Dont forget to cite your sources! All citation formats are allowed, but the preferred form is Chicago Manual of Stylefootnotes or endnotes. For information on Chicago style, see: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/documentation/docchicago/