“Risks Both Known and Unknown”

Abstract

The idea of situation has gained increased attention in HIV/STD prevention research and practice. In the context of prevention, situationdoes not simply connote settingor placebut also incorporates meanings people attached to the physical setting and how the complex interrelation of setting, meaning, and behaviors influences decisions regarding sexual behaviors and prevention measures. Kenneth Burke's pentadic analysis provides a means to illuminate how situation influences decisions regarding sexual behaviors and risk taking. This manuscript describes the pentadic method, its application to situation and sexual risk behaviors, and its utility through content analysis of transcribed interviews (or texts) with men who patronize bathhouses, bath house staff members, and release forms from bathhouse establishments in three geographic areas. In this case, the analysis reveals that bathhouse patrons and policies perceive bathhouses as situations that privilege expedient sexual release rather than individuals and over how those releases occur. This predominant perspective impedes, but does not preclude, risk reduction. The authors provide recommendations for promoting condom use for anal sex in the bathhouse setting as well as for the utility of pentadic analysis in related research.

Key Words:

• Bathhouses
• condom use
• HIV/STD
• MSM
• situational theory
• dramatism
• pentadic analysis
• Kenneth Burke