The social construction of ARVs in South Africa* *This article is based on a longer study that was developed in collaboration with Sexuality Policy Watch, with funding provided by the Ford Foundation. For an extended discussion of the issues examined in this article, see “Constitutional authority and its limitations: The politics of sexuality in South Africa”, which is available as part of the e-book, SexPolitics: Reports from the Front Lines , edited by Richard Parker, Rosalind Petchesky, and Robert Sember, 2007. This e-book includes a series of case studies, as well as a crosscutting analysis, focused on the politics of sexual health and rights in eight countries and two institutional contexts.