PrEPped Intimacies in Berlin: Affective Ambivalences and Embodied Subjects in Biomedical HIV-Prevention

自1980年代初艾滋病毒/艾滋病疫情爆发以来，避孕套和后来的艾滋病毒治疗一直是防止该病毒通过性传播的唯一手段。现在，一种生物医学技术在预防艾滋病毒方面开创了一个新纪元：“暴露前预防”(PrEP)被证明在预防艾滋病毒感染方面非常有效。在德国，PrEP自2016年10月开始按处方提供，自2019年9月以来，该药物的费用以及每三个月一次的检查都由公共医疗保险支付。引入生物医学预防的特点是情感矛盾：虽然该药物带来了结束艾滋病毒/艾滋病流行和对艾滋病毒阳性者污名化的希望，但它也引发了关于无避孕套的性行为和传播其他性传播感染的危险的说教辩论。“柏林的亲密准备”项目从医学和同性恋人类学的(子)学科出发，探讨了新的艾滋病毒预防措施，并调查了该市男同性恋者的多重社会文化影响，这些男同性恋者是PrEP的主要使用群体。它将PrEP概念化为男同性恋者的生活、经历和身体中的一种情感、话语和物质的形成，以及在柏林的特定背景下，柏林是一个具有很高国际吸引力的城市，以其性行为放任而闻名。该项目从民族志的角度调查生物医学预防如何塑造具体的受试者并改变亲密接触--以及PrEP本身所处的健康公共、亚文化话语和治疗情况。因此，它要求PrEP在柏林产生的关系、影响和话语，并调查在这一过程中如何出现亲密、身体现实和主观性。将在柏林同性恋社区和艾滋病毒预防领域进行为期十个月的民族志实地研究，以关注新型生物医学艾滋病毒预防的情感矛盾和具体主题。为了了解关于预防艾滋病的个人和机构谈判，将通过为各种艾滋病毒预防项目工作来进行参与者观察。作为人种学实地工作的一部分，该项目将通过不同的采访形式(传记-叙述和部分后续采访；焦点小组；半结构化在线采访)重点关注男同性恋者的主观经历，并用艾滋病毒预防领域的专家访谈以及流行病学话语分析和网上约会简介来补充收集的数据。

Since the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, the condom and, later on HIV therapy, have been the only means of preventing a sexual transmission of the virus. A biomedical technology now introduces a new era in the prevention of HIV: taken on a daily basis or “on demand”, “Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis” (PrEP) proved to be highly effective in preventing an HIV infection. In Germany, PrEP has been available on prescription since October 2016 and the costs for the drug as well as the three-monthly examinations have been covered by public health insurance since September 2019. The introduction of the biomedical prophylaxis is characterized by affective ambivalences: while the drug has raised hopes for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the stigmatization of HIV-positive people, it has also incited moralizing debates about condom-free sex and the danger of spreading other sexually transmitted infections.The project “PrEPped Intimacies in Berlin” approaches the new HIV prophylaxis from the (sub-)disciplines of medical and queer anthropology and investigates its multiple sociocultural effects among gay men in the city who constitute the main user group of PrEP. It conceptualizes PrEP as an affective, discursive and material formation in the lives, experiences and bodies of gay men as well as in the specific context of Berlin, a city with a high international appeal and a reputation for its sexual permissiveness. The project investigates ethnographically how the biomedical prophylaxis shapes embodied subjects and transforms intimate encounters – together with the health publics, subcultural discourses and therapeutic situations within which PrEP itself is situated. It thus asks for the relations, affects and discourses that PrEP produces in Berlin and investigates how intimacies, corporealities and subjectivities emerge in this process.Ethnographic field research will be conducted over ten months within the Berlin gay community and in the field of HIV prevention to attend to the affective ambivalences and embodied subjects of the novel biomedical HIV prophylaxis. In order to get to an understanding of individual and institutional negotiations regarding PrEP, participant observation will be carried out by working for various HIV prevention projects. As part of ethnographic fieldwork, the project will focus on the subjective experiences of gay men through different interview formats (biographical-narrative, and partially follow-up, interviews; focus groups; semi-structured online interviews) and complement the collected data with expert interviews in the field of HIV prevention as well as the analysis of epidemiological discourses and online dating profiles.