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"BUT NICE GIRLS DON'T GET IT"

Women, Symbolic Capital, and the Social Construction of AIDS

DONALD P. KELLY

JUDITH LIU

This ethnographic study analyzes the experiences of a group of women who are HIV-seropositive and possess one or more signs of socially respected symbolic capital: they are White, heterosexual, married, and/or middle class. Symbolic capital translates into social power and allows these women to control disclosure of their HIV status. Even when they reveal their HIV status, symbolic capital allows them to remain "nice girls" in the eyes of others. Ironically, attempts to protect their moral status help to reproduce dominant social and cultural constructions that continue to link AIDS with risk groups. The data suggest that the protective status afforded by their symbolic capital is a double-edged sword protecting them from stigma but also potentially delaying their HIV diagnosis and treatment.

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