HIV/AIDS,Aging,and Diminishing Abilities: Reconfiguring Gay Masculinity in Literature and Theology

Abstract

Two recent novels (Maupin, 2007; Holleran, 2006) introduce new concerns for the intersection of gay theology and men's studies relative to long-term HIV/AIDS survival and aging. These novels also revisit the conflict between whether sexuality and promiscuity or friendship and fidelity best constitute gay identity (issues also revisited in another recent, nonfiction text: Krondorfer, 2009). As an invitation to a conversation on these issues, this essay will explore the following: What do body image and sexuality mean for men whose bodies are re-shaped by long-term reliance on antiviral medications? What does the extant men's studies literature say about bodily changes and masculinity? How might the confluence of HIV/AIDS, long-term survival, and aging begin to nuance gay theology and men's studies?

Keywords

aging antiviral medications drug cocktails gay men HIV/AIDS long-term survival

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