Fixing Men: Sex, Birth Control, and AIDS in Mexico
"Fixing Menis terrific; sharp observation, tough-minded analysis, beautiful writing."—Raewyn Connell, author ofMasculinities"By bringing together a focus on men's sexuality in relation to key sexual health issues such as HIV/AIDS, family planning and contraception, vasectomies, and traditional healing for sexual ailments such as impotence and infertility,Fixing Menmakes a major contribution that should help to define the field for some time to come."—Richard Parker, author ofBeneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil"This ethnographic study of male sexuality, reproductive health and health behavior makes new and needed contribution to several scholarly debates and literatures. It is certain to attract interest from medical anthropologists, along with researchers on gender, sexuality, Mexican studies, and reproductive health."—Carole Browner, University of California, Los Angeles"In this consistently engaging study of male reproductive health, Matt Gutmann has produced an original contribution to Latin American ethnography, the study of masculinity, and medical anthropology. Gutmann listens carefully to the life stories of men in Oaxaca and discovers among them a rich range of emotions, opinions, and behavior. As with his previous influential work,Fixing Menpresents a serious challenge to stereotypical portraits of what it means to be a man in Mexico. Once you start reading this riveting volume, you will not be able to put it down."—Stanley Brandes, University of California, Berkeley"Matthew Gutmann draws on his magisterial understanding of Mexican masculinities in demonstrating how taking male subjectivities and migration seriously can illuminate the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. InFixing Men, a conspiracy of silence recedes in the face of his dialogues with Oaxacan men, whose words, labor, and bodies challenge the cultural, sexual, and neoliberal logics that have enabled scholars and public health practitioners alike to avoid these complex questions."—Charles Briggs, author ofStories in the Time of Cholera"Fixing Menis a path-breaking study of men's reproductive health in Latin America.  In a scholarly field where the focus is almost entirely on women,Fixing Menshows us that men are important reproductive actors, whose problems, needs, and desires must be addressed in the fields of family planning, sex education, and HIV/AIDS.  This book represents an important contribution to the anthropology of reproduction, the new masculinity studies, and to Oaxacan ethnography.  Global health practitioners would also benefit from Gutmann's insights about the need to address men directly in reproductive healthcare delivery."—Marcia C. Inhorn, author ofLocal Babies, Global Science