Neoliberal Parenting, Future Sexual Citizens, and Vaccines Against Sexual Risk

Public health systems in the USA and elsewhere recommend vaccination for children from birth through college. Some vaccines target diseases that are easily spread through casual contact, others—like those against hepatitis B and the human papilloma virus (HPV)—target infections spread though more intimate contact, including the exchange of bodily fluids during sexual activity. Although vaccination is very safe, it is in fact a medical intervention into the body that carries some minute risk and that requires individuals or parents to consent. As such, vaccines make for an exciting case through which to understand meanings of health, disease, sexuality, and choice in the context of neoliberalism. Using qualitative data from parents, pediatricians, and attorneys from the vaccine injury compensation system, this article first explores parents’ perceptions of these two vaccines for their children, beliefs about their children’s future sexual selves, and their goals to raise children into the kinds of sexual citizens they desire them to be. Second, the parents’ views are placed in dialogue with pediatricians’ experiences of working with parents to gain trust in the HPV vaccine, as well as barriers to providing care to teens when they become sexually active. Finally, implications for policy are discussed.