The Interface of Sex and Power

The opening plemary at the 2008 National Gay Men's Health Summit unpacked the gay men's wellness construct. Trevor Hoppe, pictured, was one of the panelists and has made his prepared remarks available.

Good afternoon! I’ve been asked to provide some provocative opening remarks about Wellness – but I’m going to do something very academic-y, and talk a bit around the issue. Rather than defining what wellness looks like, per se, I want to ask us to be thinking about how Power works to structure Wellness. That is to say, how power – a concept I’ll elaborate on in a minute – works in different ways to either give or deny access to Wellness. Power gives us access to Wellness – without it, we can never hope to achieve it, collectively or individually.

Read the rest of Trevor's remarks here.

And of interest as well, here is the link to download Trevor's PowerPoint slides from his presentation on qualitative research investigation into bottom identity at the Gay Men's Health Summit.