Women Of Color Have A Higher Chance Of Contracting Hiv

Many individuals have this malnourished ideal that HIV/AIDS is a disease based on race. “AIDS; which has ravaged minority community in disproportionately large numbers, must be viewed as racial issue, the national commission member on AIDS said yesterday” (Priest). Years ago Yale University law professor Harlon Dalton said this about HIV/AIDS, “We cannot approach the AIDS problem in a color blind fashion” (Priest). With this being said we need to stop pointing fingers at blacks’ for the disproportionate factor of HIV in this country. And also stop pointing fingers at black homosexuals.

HIV/ AIDS affect African Americans at a higher rate than any other race (White, Asian, and Hispanic). With African Americans making up approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population, in 2014, they made up almost half of all new HIV/AIDS cases; 44 percent. African American men accounted for 73 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases, and of that 43 percent of African American men were heterosexual (CDC 2014). Since heterosexual African American men don’t equate to the larger population of HIV cases as compared to African American men who have sex with men, these heterosexual men are virtually invisible in the theoretical and empirical psychological HIV/AIDS literature (Bowleg, 2004, p.166).

​African-Americans are the ethnic group most affected by HIV/AIDS. Ironically african-americans represent 14% of the population of the United States , but represent 44% across the gender line. African-american men represent 70% of HIV infections among the ethnic group, however african-american women are also highly at risk of HIV infection. Indeed they have a rate of infection that is 15 times greater than the rate for caucasion women (HIV among African-Americans, 2012). Most African-american women (85%) are infected with HIV through heterosexual sex, often with partners, who claim to be

A week ago I found myself reading Patricia Hill Collins, “It’s All In the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation” and it made me reflect on the ways in which both gender and race are socially built out of distorted interpretations of family. Collectively constructed as opposed to an innate understanding. We have grown dependent on dysfunctional projections of family, giving rise to a hierarchy which aims to serve all: “…a male headship that privileges and naturalizes masculinity as a source of authority…mothers comply with fathers, sisters defer to brothers, all with the understanding that boys submit to maternal authority until they become men.” (Collins 159) The commitment towards this flawed assemblage of characterizations, has in a way, normalized the social hierarchy. However, this expectation has become unrealistic. Many females find that they are not adequately prepared to survive in a male dominated country, although there is little rebellion against these imposed values.

HIV/AIDS is a disease with social, psychological and physiological consequences for those impacted by the illness. The impact of HIV and AIDS among African American women has been devastating. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2010) reports that black women represent 29% of the estimated new HIV infections among all adult and adolescent African Americans and HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for black women ages 25?44. Several

Some see gender as being “Black and White” and it is, literally. With numerous gender ideologies, not only is there division between the Black (African Americans) and the White (fair skinned Europeans), but between men and women as well. Generally, white men and white men only hold most of the power in the world that there is to possess and it has consciously been set up for them to do so. The technical name for this global concept is hegemonic masculinity. This highly sexist and blatantly racist model has been implemented by bigoted western agendas to then be culturally and systematically carried out for centuries; sometimes without question. In her novel “Black Sexual Politics”, Patricia Hill Collins masterfully highlights just how much hegemonic masculinity altered the once blissful power structure, not just in the western world but specifically within the homes of the Black community. She also confers the several quintessential benchmarks within hegemonic masculinity that the Black man must uphold in order for him to unambiguously maintain his “dominant” status.

The African American women age 18-24 who contract HIV have a high mortality rate than other racial groups. African American women are known to be less likely to date outside their race. Although

Dating all the way back to the late 1700s, women of color, have had to deal with the constant objectification and othering of their bodies. The hypersexualization of Black Women, has its roots in slavery, and has become a social stigma that is both systemic and institutionalized. It is something that is present both external from the black community as well as within the black community. Not only does this stereotype have a negative impact on the way in which black girls and women navigate and exist in society, it also restricts their voice. Typically, the sexualization of women has been focused from solely a gendered standpoint, which fails to understand the complexities associated with the inclusion of factors such as race, socio-economic status, as well as sexual orientation.

In Audre Lorde’s story, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” she reveals the difficulties that women of color have and are experiencing. Based off of money and profit, she argues how society challenges superiority. Which leads into the classification of “dehumanized inferior(s),” who are considered as “Third World people, working-class people, older people, and women” (Lorde 114). She provides her experience of inferiority by discussing her personal thoughts of inferiority. Lorde thinks that “[I]t is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes” (114). She believes that society should be open-minded in seeing difference. Lorde argues that individuals are ignoring it and they aren't realizing

Multiracial feminism efforts are to understand the ways in which domination intersects with differences. When referring to differences, this means racial-ethnicity, class, and gender. This has spearheaded women studies to figure how to improve living for all, taking in consideration the differences and challenges women and men alike have faced. To change pre-historic beliefs of feminist universalism and instead acknowledge that we are all diverse but still socially

In history, women have always struggled to gain equality, respect, and the same rights as men. Women had had to endure years of sexism and struggle to get to where we are today. The struggle was even more difficult for women of color because not only were they dealing with issues of sexism, but also racism. Many movements have helped black women during the past centuries to overcome sexism, racism, and adversities that were set against them. History tells us that movements such as the Feminist Movement helped empower all women, but this fact is not totally true. In this paper, I will discuss feminism, the movements, and its "minimal" affects on black women.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) along with other sexually transmitted infections (STI) have emerged as a health epidemic over the recent decades and continue to threaten the lives of people today. In order to better understand the virus and other STIs, in terms of the populations they affect, it is important to observe the diverse risk factors among different genders and ethnicities that are HIV positive. One vital consideration for a study of this nature is the difference in HIV-positive care provided between genders. By examining the disparities that exist within STI treatment across the variables of gender and ethnicity, information for various people of age, gender and race have more viable information to use. Therefore, careful examination of the trends in equity (or lack thereof) across education programs and care for different gender and ethnicity groups, can lead to important changes that can be made for better health treatment of all people. However, not all groups of people can be treated entirely equally. For example, risk factors for transmission of HIV have been known to shift according to gender trends and remain higher for some ethnic groups than others. Effective public health interventions will need to combat overt discrimination in treatment while balancing the influence of known trends across these two broad variables in order to manage a positive output for clients.

As humans living in an organized society, we are inevitably defined and viewed through the ideals created by that organizing entity. Each culture has its own view of masculinity and femininity that may vary from another culture's. The degree of difference may not be very large but it is these cultural differences that often create conflicts and struggles among certain groups of people. A quintessential example of such a struggle can be seen when observing black women in America. The adversities that black women encounter in this country are caused by the societal ideals of femininity. In American culture, though a woman can be as independent and successful as she desires, she must still conform to

Black woman were depicted through this myth as breadwinners, running “female-headed households” because they were forced to join labor forces due to the circumstances of black life, the poor low social class working for white supremacists without any other opportunities (79). The black men fighting to obtain control and power emulated the highest societal symbol of power, white men and white supremacy, and therefore viewed power as the ability to oppress another; black men viewed matriarchal figures as a threat to their position as “the sole boss,” so internalization of this myth lead to black men to consider black females “as a threat to their personal power” leading to black males demanding that black woman assume a “passive subservient role in the home” under their power

In the film The Color purple women are strongly objectified by men, their worth being ruled by beauty, talent and what they could do. They were left uneducated to keep them submissive and beaten down to be put in place. Men however did as they please with no repercussions for their actions. White men were given the right to an education and all