Re-Creating dominant ideologies: The "Virgin Cure" in the Postmodern Moment
Katharine Dargis
Department of Anthropology
American University
In the postmodern era, the Internet is ostensibly free from limiting identity markers and contains the potential to be an ideal space for democratic debate. In this paper, I textually anaylize the transcript of a discussion forum from a website devoted to uncovering conspiracies and that encourages the questioning of authority.
The discussion topic is about six South African men accused of practicing the ‘virgin cure,’ a practice which steams from the belief that if one has sexual intercourse with a virgin, they can be cured of HIV/AIDS. This participants, in the course of discussion, transform these six men into all black South Africans and ultimately, into an Other.
In this paper, this process is connected to a legacy of colonial, postcolonial, and development ideologies, in which discourse has been used to maintain systems of power. Examining grammatical markers of identity formation, this papertraces the re-creation of dominant ideologies. This paper critically questions the ability of the discussants to subvert dominant ideologies, focusing on negotiated use of media sources and ability to dissent from established metanarratives. A connection is drawn to international public health policy to criticize the impact dominant ideologies have on those involved.