Sexual health as surplus: the marketization of PrEP in Taiwan
Journal
BioSocieties
Journal Volume
18
Journal Issue
2
Pages
410–428
Date Issued
2023-06-01
Author(s)
Abstract
The global implementation of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)—a HIV prevention medicine—has evoked new hopes of ending AIDS. In 2016, a group of Taiwanese and Thai doctors and AIDS advocates initiated a PrEP delivery online platform to assist gay Taiwanese men to access the less expensive, generic versions of PrEP in Thailand. Drawing on science and technology studies, this article investigates how gay men’s bodies and sexualities and PrEP’s promise of ending AIDS become intertwined with the political and cultural economy of governmental regulation, pharmaceutical innovation, and personal mobility and pleasure. Building on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Taiwan and Thailand, it scrutinizes changing definitions of sexual health and surplus values of PrEP in two intertwined social settings: One is that of Taiwan’s online PrEP delivery system, which mediated between the top-down biomedical regulation of the pharmaceutical industry and Taiwanese state, and the other one is the transnational commercial transitions, which mediated through commercial ventures and individual recreational and consumer activities. By moving across various social landscapes, the article not only acknowledges the constraints put upon the individual by processes of commodification but also recognizes the possibilities and potentialities that are enacted by laypersons’ desires and migratory practices.
Subjects
HIV/AIDS | Medical Tourism | PrEP | Surplus Health | Value
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Type
journal article