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Liberal versions of sexuality, which mark South Africa's new democracy, have had a number of highly contradictory consequences for women and men, as old notions of masculinity and male privilege have been destabilized. The transition to democracy has precipitated a crisis of masculinity. Orthodox notions of masculinity are being challenged and new versions of masculinity are emerging in their place. Some men are seeking to be part of a new social order while others are defensively clinging to more familiar routines. Drawing on in-depth interviews with young African working class men, this paper explores new masculinities in contemporary South Africa. It examines how men negotiate their manhood in a period of social turbulence and transition. Masculinity, male sexuality, and the expectations which men have of themselves, each other and women are contested and in crisis.

Stigma is not a new concept; however, it remains highly significant in the context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. There is wide consensus that HIV/AIDS-related stigma compromises the well-being of people living with the disease. This paper is part of a larger study that seeks to understand the social and cultural complexity related to the provision and outcomes of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa. It explores and analyses how patients on ART perceived and experienced stigma and how it has shaped their behaviour towards, as well as their understanding of the epidemic. The data have been collected by means of in-depth face-to-face interviews, conducted between June and November 2007, with a sample of 44 patients in an HIV/AIDS clinic in a resource-limited setting in Johannesburg, South Africa. The findings reveal that the level of felt and anticipated stigma is intense and affects all dimensions of living with HIV/AIDS, particularly disclosure and treatment. Stigma permeates the experience of HIV-positive people on ART who participated in this study. The intensity of HIV/AIDS-related stigma can threaten to compromise the value of ART, thus impacting on the daily lives of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). This study suggests that three decades into the epidemic, stigmatisation remains a core feature of the patient experience of HIV/AIDS. In the clinic in which this research was conducted, HIV/AIDS was regarded as a chronic condition increasingly manageable by ongoing access to ART. However, this approach was not shared by many family members, neighbours and employers who held highly stigmatised views.

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Aims: To examine how a rural community profoundly affected by escalating rates of largely AIDS-related deaths of young and middle-aged people makes sense of this phenomenon and its impact on their everyday lives. Methods: Data were collected in Agincourt subdistrict, Limpopo Province. Twelve focus groups were constituted according to age and gender and met three times (a total of 36 focus-group discussions [FGDs]). The FGDs explored sequentially people's expectations of their lives in the ''new'' South Africa, their interpretations of the acceleration of death amongst the young and middleaged, and their understandings of HIV/AIDS. Discussions were recorded, fully transcribed, and thematically analysed. Results: Respondents acknowledged escalating death rates in their community, yet few referred directly to HIV/AIDS as the cause. Rather, respondents focused on the social and cultural causes of death, including the erosion of cultural norms and traditions such as cultural taboos on sex. There are many competing versions of what HIV/AIDS is, what causes it and how it is spread, ranging from scientific explanations to conspiracy theories. Findings highlight the relationship between AIDS and other traditional diseases with some respondents suggesting that AIDS is a new form of other longstanding illnesses. Conclusions: This study points to the centrality of cultural explanations in understanding ''bad death'' (AIDS death) in the Agincourt area. Physical illness is understood to be a symptom of ''cultural damage''. Implications of this for public health practice and research are outlined.

BACKGROUND A combination of increased suicide in the past decade, documented high rates of anxiety and depression, and the preponderance of other behavioral and emotional regulation challenges place black youth at risk for school suspension and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Pointing to deficits in black youth and their families negates how forces of racism, whether unconscious or conscious, can disrupt well‐being. METHODS A framework for race‐related trauma in the public education system illustrates the interplay between macro‐level forces, such as institutional and symbolic racism, and micro level forces of racism such as racial discrimination and violence. Identifying causal links between these forces and adverse academic and health outcomes for black youth can inform interventions and strategies to reduce race‐related trauma. RESULTS The framework for race‐related trauma is a multi‐level analysis of racism and recognizes school districts facing economic restraints and school personnel turnover may face significant challenges in designing intervening strategies. CONCLUSION The framework guides change effort towards improving school climate and culture through preparing school professionals to meet the diverse needs of youth, strengthening family and community collaboration, and tackling those policies and behaviors that exclude and disconnect black youth.

The experience of living with HIV, in the global north, has changed significantly over the past 20 years. This is largely the result of effective biomedical methods of treatment and prevention. HIV is now widely considered to be a long-term condition like many others - it has been argued that HIV has been 'normalised'. Drawing on online qualitative survey data, with respondents aged 18-35 years, diagnosed with HIV in the past 5 years, this research explores contemporary subjective experiences of being diagnosed, and living, with HIV in the United Kingdom. The data reveal ambiguous experiences and expectations, as the 'normative' status of HIV exists alongside ongoing experiences of fear, shame and stigma - maintaining its status as the most 'social' of diseases. In rendering HIV 'everyday', the space to articulate (and experience) the 'difference' which attaches to the virus has contracted, making it difficult to express ambivalence and fear in the face of a positive, largely biomedical, discourse. In this article, the concepts of normalisation and chronicity provide an analytical framework through which to explore the complexity of the 'sick role' and 'illness work' in HIV.

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