Viral Desires : Enjoyment and Death in the Contemporary Discourse on Barebacking

• In an extreme form of barebacking, “bug-chasing” denotes a sexual practice in which individuals not infected by HIV consciously expose themselves to the virus through unprotected sex with infected partners. This phenomenon has recently received much attention in queer studies, and this chapter addresses how the most important account of bug-chasing to date, queer theorist Tim Dean’s book Unlimited Intimacy (2009), negotiates boundaries of sexuality and death. In particular it interrogates Dean’s claim that the aim of the practice is a sense of unlimited intimacy that would transcend the individual risk of physical death, and it argues that Dean idealizes barebacking, suppressing the role of death in sexual excitement.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

barebacking

bug chasing

desire

sexual excitement

Tim Dean

psychoanalysis

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