Antibiotics and the Biopolitics of Sex Work in Zimbabwe

The advent of antibiotics transformed the global public health landscape, dramatically improving health outcomes. Drawing on historical and ethnographic research on sex work in Zimbabwe, we examine the role of antibiotics in the management of sexually transmitted infections among sex workers, from p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical anthropology 2022-04, Vol.41 (3), p.257-271
Main Authors: Manyau, Salome, Dixon, Justin, Mutukwa, Norest, Kandiye, Faith, Palanco Lopez, Paula, MacPherson, Eleanor E., Ferrand, Rashida A., Chandler, Clare I. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology, Medical
Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use
Antibiotics
Antimicrobial agents
antimicrobial resistance
Biopolitics
Discourses
Efficacy
Empowerment
Ethnographic research
Female
global health
Governance
Health status
HIV Infections
Humans
Infections
Public health
Sex industry
Sex Work
Sex Workers
Sexually transmitted diseases
STD
Women
Workers
Zimbabwe
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Summary:The advent of antibiotics transformed the global public health landscape, dramatically improving health outcomes. Drawing on historical and ethnographic research on sex work in Zimbabwe, we examine the role of antibiotics in the management of sexually transmitted infections among sex workers, from punitive colonial approaches to "empowerment"-based discourses. We illustrate how programs for sex workers, while valued by these women, are narrow, exclusionary, and enact a pharmaceuticalized form of governance that hangs on the efficacy of antibiotics. With antibiotics' efficacy under threat, we consider how latent colonial logics are in danger of being reactivated to control both infections and women.
ISSN:0145-9740
1545-5882
DOI:10.1080/01459740.2022.2037083