Blodets biopolitik
Heterosexuell hygien och män som har sex med män
Blood donationsBlood safetyMSMHIV/AIDS policyFeminist technoscienceQueer theoryBiopoliticsGenealogyHeteronormativityBlodgivningBlodsäkerhetMSMHIV/AIDS policyFeministiska vetenskapsstudierQueerteoriBiopolitikGenealogiHeteronormativitet
Following the wake of the AIDS-catastrophe in the beginning of the eighties, homosexual men or 'men who have sex with men' (MSM) have been barred from donating blood throughout the planet. In this thesis I look into the different discourses at play in the context of creating the legal framework for blood donation in Sweden. Genealogically tracing the emergence of the category of MSM and mapping how the category is brought to use in contemporary negotiations on blood safety, I scrutinize how scientific truth is established within blood transfusion practice. I argue that the rationality of risk group exclusion is contingent on economical grounds, and that the foucauldian concept of biopolitics could productively be used to understand this rationality. In particular, the concept of the 'biopolitics of blood' can be employed in order to understand the reluctance from the involved actors to acknowledge the heteronormative consequences of the legal framework of contemporary blood donation.