Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Your first quote is saying the opposite of what you are trying to defend. It’s about women taking prep because they believe their husbands are cheating, which makes total sense.

Not HIV husbands forbidding their wives from taking prep because it would enable the wives to cheat or imply that they are cheating



The point is that in the scenario being described, where the woman feels she needs "permission", the man's perspective is... if you were taking this, what does that say about ME? What does that say about what you think about ME? The decision would be about him, not her. How could it be about her? Wait, if it's not about ME, who else do you need this for? MY wife would never need such a thing.

It is easy to avoid stigma and shame through denial. The woman would be well aware that he would not approve such a thing and would take it in secret.


I mean you literally have women saying they take it if they are cheating.

> Some of the women were prevented by their male partner from taking or continuing PrEP: “I showed him the pill. He immediately stopped me from saying more before mentioning he had heard about PrEP and that he was strongly against the pill... He ordered me to throw them away or else pack my bags and leave. And that was why I stopped taking them.”

Here’s some more explicit quotes [1]:

> Another concern was that partners would interpret PrEP use as evidence of sexual activity outside the relationship.

> “I didn’t tell him about the pills. I was hesitant because he will say, ‘Why are you preventing HIV? Are you cheating now because we don’t have HIV so why are you taking pills?’ So, I decided to keep quiet. I am going to tell him. But for now, I haven’t told him about it.” PrEP User, Lower adherer, Age 21

It even makes sense that your partner taking PrEP would be seen as evidence of having an affair if you are convinced that neither of you had HIV prior. So not only do you continue on doubling down on a losing position, it’s not even an illogical line of reasoning to have.

I’d say the burden of proof is on you at this point that such an interpretation isn’t a social norm or that it’s even an illogical position to have.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9245881/




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: