Between the 15th and 18th of April 2009, the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society (IASSCS) hosted its 7th biennial international conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. The conference involved the participation of over 432 sexuality researchers, policy makers and activists from 46 countries around the world.
The conference title, ‘Contested Innocence – Sexual Agency in Public and Private Space’, was the source of bewilderment for some participants, who casually mentioned their confusion over the meaning of ‘contested innocence’. In a welcoming speech given in the opening ceremony, Carlos Cáceres (chair of the board of IASSCS) explained that the conference title developed out of the desire to address issues that were of particular interest in Asia; primarily, the economic changes occurring in the region, and the implications for social and cultural understandings of sexuality. According to Cáceres, ‘contesting innocence’ refers to the questioning of particular ‘representations of innocent Asian sexualities’ fostered by States, and which are becoming increasingly unsettled through local, regional and global transformations.
The conference theme made a strong appearance in the first plenary session entitled ‘I Did Not Have Sex With…Politics, Media and Controversy’. The keynote speaker Lenore Manderson discussed the public controversy and scandal that have surrounded the sexual identities and practices of political figures such as Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia and Jacob Zuma in South Africa. Manderson pointed out that in the former case, in which Ibrahim was charged with homosexuality, his innocence rested on the necessary denial of his sexuality. In contrast, it was not necessary for Zuma (the president of South Africa and of the National AIDS Council), who was accused of raping a woman, to publically deny his sexuality. He insisted on having had consensual sex with the woman in question, who was HIV positive. In this case, much of the scandal occurred around his confession of not using a condom and attempting to reduce his risk of infection by showering after having sexual intercourse. This cast him as an incompetent and untrustworthy politician and public figure.
In the same plenary session, one of the discussants, Josephine Ho, explored another dimension of innocence and controversy. She considered how the sexuality of women and children is constructed as innocent and thus vulnerable and in need of protection. According to Ho, we should be critical of those forms of control that are assumed to be benevolent. She argued, for instance, that the assumption that lowering age of consent is tantamount to destroying the sexual innocence of children should be analysed and contested rather than taken for granted.
Another important theme to emerge from the conference, exemplified in the plenary session ‘Out of the boxes? Between boxes? No boxes? New boxes? Reflections on Gender and Sexual Diversity’, was the relationship between gender and sexuality. A key issue raised in the session was the problematic way in which people’s sexualities have been categorised, and how these categories have become increasingly fixed. For instance, Dédé Oetomo critiqued the continued use of the term ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM), and jokingly suggested an additional term – ‘men who love and have sex with men’. Evelyn Blackwood also critiqued the construction of rigid categories of behaviour or identity, particularly the globalisation of the acronym LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender). According to Blackwood, although the use of this acronym has served an important function in regards to fostering a sense of inclusion in non-heterosexual communities, it simultaneously disguises the diverse and fluid natures of gender and sexuality, particularly in non-western contexts.
The parallel sessions at the conference covered an enormous range of topics and themes. Issues surrounding HIV prevention and intervention appeared consistently throughout the conference, and participants presented papers on contexts as diverse as Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma/Myanmar, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Australia and the United States. For instance, one presenter discussed the ‘gap’ between theory and practise in HIV prevention training in Burma/Myanmar, showing how top-down approaches reduce sexuality to ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ moral imperatives that mask the complexities associated with pleasure, desire, and relationships. Another issue that came up in a number of presentations was the difficulty associated with targeting HIV prevention to high risk groups, such as homosexually active men, when these men do not identify as gay or homosexual, and do not access sexual health services where it is possible to discuss sexual behaviour and/or identity.
Clearly, however, homosexually active men do not comprise the only high risk group. Several papers discussed HIV infection and unsafe sexual practices among heterosexual men and women, particularly in some African countries where HIV is predominantly spread through heterosexual sex. One presenter discussed his research on heterosexual men’s safe sex practices in Mozambique, finding that condom use is associated with differing class based ideologies surrounding masculinity and agency. For middle-class young men, condom use was connected to their desire for control over their futures, which were strongly oriented towards successful professional and family lives. However, for lower-class young men, condom use was associated with being unmasculine, un-African, and irrelevant to more important and immediate concerns such as pleasure.
The topic of Muslim sexualities was also discussed in a number of presentations, and several panels were organised around the subject of Islam and sexuality in postcolonial settings. A theme to emerge in several papers was the problematic tendency to represent Muslim sexualities as ‘traditional’, ‘backward’ or lacking in agency, in comparison to Western representations of ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ sexual agents. There was also some discussion on culturally appropriate ways of doing research in Muslim cultures and, further, how to draw from positive Islamic principles and discourses associated with sexuality that are often disguised by incorrect assumptions about how sexuality is positioned within Islamic ‘tradition’.
The IASSCS conference attracted a diverse group of people, with varied interests and backgrounds, and it was a fantastic opportunity for participants to network and socialise, and strengthen an expanding community of scholars, students and activists committed to sexuality studies. This was greatly facilitated by outstanding conference catering and several social events, which included an impressive gala dinner that finished with a highly enjoyable, impromptu disco. Overall, the conference was a great success and I am sure everybody who attended is looking forward to the next one in two years time.
