Adina Nack, Ph.D. - Healthy Sexuality & Society

Reviews

"This book is a rich and thoughtful account of the painful stigma experienced by women when faced with a sexually transmitted disease. It underscores the consequence of our sexual silence and the power of our sexual lives. The personal stories highlight the critical role of sexual health education, particularly for youth, their families, and their medical providers. Nack's auto-ethnography adds a lens that deepens the connectedness of science to the real world."

-- Cynthia A. Gomez, Ph.D., Director, Health Equity Initiative, San Francisco State University and on the Board of Trustees of the Alan Guttmacher Institute

"Damaged Goods extends major ideas about stigma and links them to women's sexual selves. It makes the most explicit links that I have seen between sexually transmitted disease and how women construct and reconstruct their sexual selves and does so in an egaging way. Dr. Nack's emphasis on how these women see themselves as sexual beings is particularly strong. She advances the literature in this area."

-- Kathy Charmaz, Ph.D., Professor, Sonoma State University and former chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association

"Adina Nack has created a compelling story, based on in-depth interviews, about what happens when women have their illusions of being immune from sexually disfiguring and stigmatizing infections dashed by the misfortune of transmission. Who would guess that a work framed so well theoretically would be such a page-turner? She draws on her own experiences as a sexual health educator and as someone who, like her interviewees, is living with a chronic STD, to explain what happens to women's sexual selves and how they negotiate sexual decision-making. An engaging and important read, it addresses vital information in a compelling and engaging way that will be valuable for those with STDs, as well as those who care for them."

-- Betsy Crane, Ph.D., Director, Graduate Programs in Human Sexuality, Widener University, Board of Directors of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality

Damaged Goods?

How do women living with genital herpes, genital warts, and HPV infections see themselves as sexual beings? How are their lives changed? Dr. Adina Nack, a medical sociologist specializing in sexual health and social psychology, conducted in-depth interviews with 43 infected women about topics that are all too little discussed, even as news circulates about GARDASIL and other STD vaccines. The result is a fascinating and important book about issues affecting millions in the U.S. and around the world. From the anxiety of being diagnosed to issues of blame and shame, Dr. Nack reveals how these medically incurable but treatable infections can transform women's sexual selves. She examines the gendered stigma of these illnesses while uncovering the physical, moral and social consequences. Damaged Goods adds to our knowledge of how individuals -- especially women -- are affected by living with chronic STDs. Nack, herself diagnosed with a cervical HPV infection, shows why these women may feel that they are "damaged goods" and question their abilities to find love, have intimate relationships, and give birth to healthy children. She also explains the ways in which many of the women experience their diagnoses as catalysts for positive change.

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