Framing dilemmas during sex: A micro-sociological approach to HIV risk

Theoretical explanations of HIV transmission within the broader contexts of cultural and social macro-structures have downplayed the significance of interactional mechanisms that facilitate HIV infection at the micro-level. In the process, the framing and ritual constraints of the interaction order – the Goffmanian face-to-face – have been undertheorized. This paper explores interactional mechanisms of HIV transmission through rigorous analysis of micro-dilemmas of HIV ‘health cooperation’ during sex. For this purpose I bring key insights from the social dilemmas literature into micro-sociological analysis of frames and meta-communication. Based on sexual narratives of Mexican gay and bisexual immigrant men in San Diego, California, I find two types of meta-frame switching during sexual encounters: protective versus trusting. I argue that the elaborate framing demands of a sexual event render choice inherently unstable, and that competing choices in connection with HIV risk and protection typically emerge and switch in the course of a single encounter. Moreover, I further argue that switching into trusting frames can be especially risky for those gay immigrant men who intersect with sexual networks that follow individualistic discourses of HIV non-disclosure. I conclude by discussing the HIV prevention implications of this analysis.