Sex, Birth Control, and AIDS in Mexico - Essay Example

?Topic:  Ethnic Study Notion of Male Sexuality Male sexuality has been a of controversy since ages, and has revolved around many issues like their sexual behavior, physiological needs, and sexual desires as well as social, cultural and political factors. Generally, speaking men are sexual beings, and spend a lot of their time in desiring and also indulging in sexual activities. Since times know, men have had sexual attraction to the same gender and it was practiced widely around the globe. Basically, according to theories men have a monogamous tendency and female have polygamous tendency when it comes to sexual indulgence. This is because man is a giver and female is a receiver in a sexual encounter .However, homosexuality has been succumbed to many prejudices and arguments, but still it continued to persist as an ever forbidden pleasure for male population. Men have always dominated sexual rights, and women were restricted and tabooed from experiencing sexual activities like men do. Men have been given more opportunity to explore their sexual desires whereas women have been condemned from following her whims and fancies about sex. It was considered natural for men to practice any means to satisfy his sexual needs as it was his utmost biological or physiological need. However the author, Mathew Guttman considered that such outward sexual fantasies of men have led to the practice of homosexuality among them which led to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. “The notions of “men natural sexual desires” were blamed for a host of health problems like AIDS on Oaxaca”(Guttmann,3). It is a common perception that all men carry same sexual desires and wants and all want to have sexual encounter with women in order to reach pleasure and satisfaction. But the fact is different, as various men indulge in different sexual acts with different gender to accomplish their sexual fetishes. They predominantly are sexual beings, and their needs are more connected to the body than mind, and, want their urges to be met invariable of the sexual object of desire. According to the author, men are not heterosexual always as most people think, many keeps a secret sexuality of themselves which they tend to explore in hides -out or darkness. Birth Control Issue Birth control is practiced among Mexican families for the main objective of restricting the birth of children and to give men more chances of indulging in sexual pleasures. Since generations, women have been given contraceptive methods to stop themselves from getting pregnant. In Mexico, men are more concerned about the reproductive health and sexuality and birth control measures are taken keeping in mind these two said factors. “It is just too obvious that much of the decision making – about what birth control methods , about what antiretroviral treatment for people with HIV and AIDS, are available – take place in boardrooms of pharmaceutical companies of Basel, Switzerland and New Jersey”(Gutmann,14).This shows that the men and women have little control on the birth control decision making and they depend on foreigners and medical specialist for this purpose. The main issue regarding gaining information on sterilization among Oaxaca men is tedious. Most of them men are deceitful when it comes to explaining the real reason behind their choice of sterilization. However, most men resort to sterilization for not taxing women’s health too much as they are the one who always get succumbed to contraceptive methods and techniques in earlier tiems. The men even want to have more sexual experience with women and if they are sterilized they can engage in sex with female partners more frequently and carelessly. The medicalization of men sexuality, is another major concern of Mexican nation. The author here means that, sexual activities and phenomena of men in Mexico should be a subject of concern among the health care reforms and medical centers. They should study why men are infected with HIV and should stop the widespread of disease across the country. Medical benefit has to be given to men and they should be educated regarding their sexual desires and activities that could put their life in danger. The Mexican country had a long history of birth control where women always undergo contraceptive methods and men enjoyed sexual dominance. May be this could be due to the fact that Women were considered to have a upper hand in procreation and reproduction .In Mexican culture they disassociate men from domestic domains and hence all issues related to family and home were concerned with women. AIDS and its Consequences Mexican men and women considered that talking about AIDS means talking about death. They thought about it as a life threatening disease and mostly it was men who infected women with AIDS without knowing that they were the carriers of HIV virus. So women started thinking of coping up with the disease rather than preventing the disease as they can’t reverse the situation. They coped with disease by keeping quiet and attending social groups where women with same disease attended and discussed about their experience with the disease. Married women with AIDS lived with their in – laws and had to put with torture and waited for death pathetically. Mostly husbands of women with AIDS traveled America for better prospects and women never blamed them for disease being loyal and considerate to their husbands. The epidemic of AIDS among men in Mexico as taken a transnational character by allowing it to spread to other nations .The transnational character of AIDS in Mexico is because , many Mexican men cross the boundaries of Mexico to America in search of job prospects and they mostly are the carriers of HIV virus. They are often unaware of this fact, and when comes in contact with females in America spread this virus to people in US. The Mexican men’s unusual l sexual desires have led them to indulge in homosexuality and this had led to the spread of HIV among most of them.According to (Gutmann,14) “A generalized fear of return migrants is also is also a byproduct of slip shod medical profiling. Most Mexican once migrate to America indulge in same gender sex and infect each other with AIDS which is a dangerous fact”. The medical profile of the Mexican men according to author is inferior and most of them are Victims of AIDS and also spread them to other men and women because of poor knowledge about the disease and health. Here the government of Mexico and other multinational companies has a great responsibility to take care of the situation. The Men and Women of this Society had to be made aware of the dangers of sexually transmitted disease and should be threatened from engaging in unprotected sixth Mexican government should initialize health programs where in the men and women of downtrodden Mexican society to learn about sex, hygiene and diseases like AIDS and their perils. Moreover, Men should be seriously discouraged from having sex with the same sex as this is the root cause of origin of AIDS among Mexican workers and migrants. In the book, the author considers United States of America as a shadow state as it where mostly Mexican men Contract with deadly epidemic called AIDS. Also he thinks America knowing that these men have AIDS avoid giving them proper treatment and health care. Work Cited Gutmann, Matthew. Fixing men: sex, birth control, and AIDS in Mexico . 1st ed.,. California: University of California Press, 2007. Print. Read More