ABSTRACT
In a time when sexual activity relies heavily upon technologies that make physical contact safer from disease transmission, the availability and use of HTV-antibody tests, latex and polyurethane barriers, and vaginal and anal microbicides have acquired increasingly significant roles since the early 1980s. The commodification and diversification of these devices have also dramatically increased as they have become necessary goods for many sexually active people who seek to reduce their risk of HIV infection. The process of diversification in this area has given rise to gender-specific safer sex products, developed for two general reasons: (1) Manufacturers are able to target consumer popula tions that constitute a market niche, and (2) public health officials have called for scientifically engineered technologies that are tailored to female bodies in an effort to curb the rate of new HTV infections. The emergence of these gendered products has not been without contro versy, however. While they continue to serve the basic function of a physical barrier to pathogens, the widespread implications of these technologies’ impact on human relations have only begun to be real ized.
