Playing the field, a practice often portrayed as the preserve of a majority of Caribbean men, has become a favourite pastime for an increasing number of women across the region.
And the women are cheating even when they can’t say their husband’s philandering ways forced them to seek affection in another man’s arms. Interestingly, those ways are a fact of life among same-sex partners and
can be found in the church as well.
Those major findings were revealed by researchers who conducted a study in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic for Panos Caribbean. The study’s results are to be released shortly.
What’s particularly worrisome is that infidelity is contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica, Haiti and the DR, according to the study. It showed a strong link between the high incidence of HIV/AIDS infection inthe Caribbean and the increasing level of husbands and wives seeking sex outside of the home.
“In highlighting infidelity, focus must be made on the role of both men and women in perpetuating the spread of HIV,” stated the report. “While in the past it was usually the men who played the field, now many Caribbean women are doing the same.
“Many (women) are unaware of their husband’s infidelity, or in cases where they suspect that their husbands are cheating, they are in denial or not in a position to negotiate condom use.
“In a culture where men are socialized to believe their manly prowess ought to be measured by the number of women they have, it is almost the accepted norm for men in Jamaica to have multiple sexual partners even within committed marital and common-law relationship . . . .
“But infidelity has and continued to fuel the spread of HIV both in heterosexual and same sex-relationships, and has even surfaced within the church.”
The study also found:
• Married women in the Caribbean, who believe that married couples are bound by their marriage vows, were vulnerable to HIV infection brought home by their spouses.
• In Haiti, whether the women are married or are single and have steady boyfriends in their lives, they seek out other men for the sexual experience.
• For some (women) it is an occasional fling, while others form medium-to-long-term sexual relationships outside that run parallel to their recognized union in Haiti.
• Infidelity by both husbands and wives in the Dominican Republic is now considered a social problem. However, men are the main culprits when it comes to going outside for sex.
• Cheating is a “common” but “strange phenomenon” whose
key element is silence. “If you practise it you don’t talk about it.” That is particularly the case in Haiti where most men don’t use condoms, even when they don’t know much, if anything about their partner’s sexual history.
• Dominican Republic men “take a mistress on a long-term basis, others have multiple sexual partners, often changing them in quick succession. While this behaviour is not completely sanctioned in Dominican society, it is widespread and tolerated’.
Little wonder then that across the Caribbean, women and girls now, on average, outpace men as HIV victims with 53 per cent.
“Despite the gains made in HIV prevention in the Caribbean, women who are married or in stable relationships constitute one of the sub-populations within which HIV infections continue to grow,” stated Panos Caribbean.
“This phenomenon poses a challenge for health care systems across the Caribbean.How then should the problem be tackled?
The study recommended that the culture of silence surrounding exploitative transactional sex in the Caribbean should be tackled head-on.
It also called for effective methods that promote lasting behavioural change. In addition, there should be a crackdown on domestic violence.
Panos Caribbean, with offices in Washington D.C., Haiti and Jamaica “works to amplify voices of the poor and the marginalized through
the media and ensure . . . their inclusion in public and policy debate in order to enable Caribbean communities and countries to articulate and communicate their own development goals”.
