Distributing Condoms and Hope

Distributing Condoms and Hope is a feminist ethnographic account of how youth sexual health programs in the racially and economically stratified city of "Millerston" reproduce harm in the marginalized communities they are meant to serve. Chris Barcelos makes space for the stories of young mothers, who often recognize the narrow ways the public health professionals of Millerston approach "teen" pregnancy. Barcelos's findings show that the agents of these programs--teachers, social workers, nurses--ignore systemic issues of race, class, and gender, and instead advocate for individual-level solutions such as distributing condoms and promoting "hope." Through a lens of reproductive justice, Distributing Condoms and Hope theorizes different kinds of futures for marginalized youth, ones that neither use their lives as basis of disciplinary public policies nor romanticize their struggles.