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Short abstract:

Drawing on feminist and queer theory, this paper offers a diffractive reading of contemporary pandemic discourses through the lens of HIV. We explore how the history and cultural imaginaries of HIV are threaded through contemporary pandemic discourses, and serve to reinforce existing inequalities.

Long abstract:

Discussions about the social impacts of COVID-19, and most recently, mpox (formerly monkeypox), have been informed by the legacy of the HIV epidemic. Yet despite awareness of the importance of avoiding exclusionary depictions of ‘at-risk’ populations, some public discourses have drawn on framings that imply certain groups are risky disease vectors who threaten the health of an imagined ‘general’ public. Drawing on feminist science studies scholar Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction and Paula Treichler’s classic work, 'How to Have Theory in an Epidemic', we offer a diffractive reading of contemporary pandemic discourses through the lens of HIV. We suggest that thinking with HIV, and the insights of queer and feminist theory provides an important analytic device for exploring how the history and cultural imaginaries of HIV are threaded through contemporary pandemic discourses, and serve to shore up normative systems of gender, sexuality, race and class, reinforcing existing inequalities. We consider how pathologising assumptions about queerness, contagion, and stigma that shaped early biomedical accounts of HIV, continue to inflect contemporary disease imaginaries. In particular, we highlight the ways in which discourses on COVID-19 and mpox function as dividing practices, arguing that they produce particular exclusions in relation to already marginalised populations, including queer communities, ethnic minorities, homeless people, and those in residential care. We conclude with reflections on the lessons of the HIV epidemic for forging more compassionate, inclusive responses to contemporary disease outbreaks.