The Review of Whores
Apr. 9th, 2010 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So when Robin Laws says "Hey, I kinda liked this book", that's my cue to go out and grab a copy. In this case it was The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani. As usual, Mr. Laws didn't steer me wrong, this is an excellent book.
Ms. Pisani was a former Reuters news reporter working in Asia. She left her job and got a PhD in epidemiology and then joined the fledgling UNAIDS organization to track the spread of AIDS and get governments to fund programs to fight it. She starts off the book discussion how textbook epidemiological studies clash with on the ground efforts to track a disease that primarily affects marginalized or outlawed populations (sex workers and drug users). She also talks about how the numbers were presented to encourage governments to think seriously about AIDS prevention and how a lot of that effort has come back to haunt them. She talks about how the early fight against AIDS in America among gay activists has helped and hurt the export of that fight to other countries. She covers the ideological restrictions that hamper AIDS efforts from reaching the people who most need it. She talks about where it's succeeded and where it's failed and why.
Ms. Pisani has an engaging and straightforward writing style that's just a joy to read. She also has a great deal of background footnotes and a website with additional supplemental material. She's a journalist and a scientist -- she backs up the things she says. She's also pretty honest about where the numbers are inconclusive and where her own blind spots and shortcomings have tripped her up and that's a solid win in my book.
So if you have any interest in this subject at all, I highly recommend the book.
It also has some sobering food for thought amongst my poly circles. The author explains how the AIDS epidemic is heavily influenced by the local culture. AIDS in Africa is epidemic because people have long-lasting, interlinked sexual networks. A guy might be married, have a girlfriend or two and when he goes on business to the big city, he's got a girl there. All of these women, of course, have their own boyfriends. A person is most likely to pass on AIDS shortly after they get infected so if one person in the network gets infected, they quickly pass it on to everyone else.
It brought me up short because these networks strongly resemble a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" version of polyamory. Which is a terrible model for polyamory, but the comparisons are striking. Now, the big win for poly folks is that most everybody is pretty stringent about safer sex and once condoms come into the picture, infection pretty much falls off a cliff. Still, condom use among gay men in America has shown a worrying drop in recent years and it's a reminder to all of us that safer sex practices are something we need to be vigilant about.
One other, though tangential, note: I got my book via inter-library loan. Inside the book was a check-out slip, probably from the person who checked out the book before me. There are no names/numbers so I have no idea who this person was, but along with The Wisdom of Whores they also checked out The Secret Language of the Tarot. An intriguing booklist to say the least.
later
Tom
So when Robin Laws says "Hey, I kinda liked this book", that's my cue to go out and grab a copy. In this case it was The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani. As usual, Mr. Laws didn't steer me wrong, this is an excellent book.
Ms. Pisani was a former Reuters news reporter working in Asia. She left her job and got a PhD in epidemiology and then joined the fledgling UNAIDS organization to track the spread of AIDS and get governments to fund programs to fight it. She starts off the book discussion how textbook epidemiological studies clash with on the ground efforts to track a disease that primarily affects marginalized or outlawed populations (sex workers and drug users). She also talks about how the numbers were presented to encourage governments to think seriously about AIDS prevention and how a lot of that effort has come back to haunt them. She talks about how the early fight against AIDS in America among gay activists has helped and hurt the export of that fight to other countries. She covers the ideological restrictions that hamper AIDS efforts from reaching the people who most need it. She talks about where it's succeeded and where it's failed and why.
Ms. Pisani has an engaging and straightforward writing style that's just a joy to read. She also has a great deal of background footnotes and a website with additional supplemental material. She's a journalist and a scientist -- she backs up the things she says. She's also pretty honest about where the numbers are inconclusive and where her own blind spots and shortcomings have tripped her up and that's a solid win in my book.
So if you have any interest in this subject at all, I highly recommend the book.
It also has some sobering food for thought amongst my poly circles. The author explains how the AIDS epidemic is heavily influenced by the local culture. AIDS in Africa is epidemic because people have long-lasting, interlinked sexual networks. A guy might be married, have a girlfriend or two and when he goes on business to the big city, he's got a girl there. All of these women, of course, have their own boyfriends. A person is most likely to pass on AIDS shortly after they get infected so if one person in the network gets infected, they quickly pass it on to everyone else.
It brought me up short because these networks strongly resemble a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" version of polyamory. Which is a terrible model for polyamory, but the comparisons are striking. Now, the big win for poly folks is that most everybody is pretty stringent about safer sex and once condoms come into the picture, infection pretty much falls off a cliff. Still, condom use among gay men in America has shown a worrying drop in recent years and it's a reminder to all of us that safer sex practices are something we need to be vigilant about.
One other, though tangential, note: I got my book via inter-library loan. Inside the book was a check-out slip, probably from the person who checked out the book before me. There are no names/numbers so I have no idea who this person was, but along with The Wisdom of Whores they also checked out The Secret Language of the Tarot. An intriguing booklist to say the least.
later
Tom
