Gender and Sexuality : Social semiotic analysis of IEC materials on HIV/AIDS

The epidemic of HIV/AIDS has been alarmingly threatening developing countries like India. To address the issues of control and management of this vexatious infection nations of the world have developed created and circulated Information Education and Communication (IEC) materials. It is in the portrayals of such materials that the construction of gender and sexuality takes place in the form of gendered social actors. Following in the footsteps of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) Tamil Nadu has produced many IEC materials. Many impact studies have been conducted on these materials in the research conducted earlier. But this study concentrates on the less researched area of how the construction of gender and sexuality in these IEC materials takes place using the social semiotic approach through Gupta’s Continuum of Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality in HIV/AIDS programmes. Forty-eight IEC materials on HIV/AIDS in Tamil Nadu in the form of posters were taken for the analysis. While analysing these materials under Gupta’s Continuum consisting of stereotypical neutral sensitive transformative and empowering constructions the fact as to what type of gendered social actors were made of was also revealed.