"Levine
and Siegal (1992)
use these examples to show how sexual passion, sexual desire, or lust become
motivating factors for unsafe sex. The authors explain:
Nearly all the men offering
this excuse felt their behavior was uncharacteristic of them and attributable
to uncontrollable urges, which overwhelmed their intent to use protection.
These men typically described these urges as powerful biological needs
and drives, which they dubbed passion or 'horniness.' (Levine
and Siegal, 1992: 62)" [Leap,
1995: 234]
"Lust
and passion are issues in these discussions, and they do influence the
respondents' decisions to participate in high-risk behavior. However, lust
and passion are secondary to the assertions of agency presented in these
texts and to the effects which differences in agency put on risk-related
decision making in each case... But a closer reading of the respondents'
- as text - suggests the need to distinguish between different constructions
of passion, particularly as each construction intertwines with, and is
shaped by, different assertions of power within each erotic domain" (Leap,
1995: 237).
"We
have countless studies in which 'promiscuity' is a variable and which never
mention love in this context as if love could not be involved in 'casual'
encounters... Only normal, monogamous heterosexual, bourgeois, middle-class
white folks truly know love, and they are not at risk; that seems to be
the assumption" (Bolton,
1995: 296).
"Yet
AIDS and sex both involve irrationality. AIDS is fundamentally a problem
of rationality; to give but a few examples: (1) Do you understand my infected
friends who say they wish they were infected? ...Irrationality is at the
base of religious systems..." (Bolton,
1995: 293).
"When
we started this research, some of us were surprised that gay men still
had unsafe sex... It was primarily we women that we so astonished... This
is a view that stems from a rational choice model. But the world is not
that simple. We hope that this has served to show that unsafe sex is also
rational behavior, and that a wider understanding of rationality is needed:
one that includes longing and love as motives for action" (Prieur,
1990: 115).
The following words are often
used but they are rarely defined. This creates a major problem when understanding
is sought.
|
Love
|
Sexual Passion
|
Affection
|
|
Lust
|
Sexual Desire
|
Intimacy
|
|
Erotic
|
Feeling of Oneness
|
Rationality
|
