To start today’s class (4/2), I’d like you to reflect on the first time you became aware of HIV/AIDS. How did you first learn about this disease? How was it presented to you? What associations did the disease have? What associations does it have now for you?
Then, identify at least one passage from Susan Sontag’s “AIDS and Its Metaphors” that surprised you or offered you a new or different way of thinking about HIV/AIDS in our culture. Explain how this passage impacted you as a reader.
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Thinking back on it, I don’t believe I really got a grasp of what HIV/AIDS was until, I would say, I took my health class in middle school. My mom had previously mentioned it to me when I was younger, but thinking the time was too early, my mom never really went into depth about it. Really, it was presented to me as any other kind of illness, an infection that could be prevented.
Later as I grew up and was able to make connections and imply things on my own I started to associate AIDS with certain individuals. Connecting AIDS with sexual contact was harped on me all through my middle school and high school health classes. Now I know however that a good portion of individuals who have AIDS conceived the virus through needles by using drugs. By sharing needles the virus spread with little problems. This way of spreading the virus was really demonstrated in the movie Rent, with at least a couple characters that had been infected by using heroin and sharing needles. So, in a way, I suppose I still associate HIV/AIDS with these kinds of individuals.
But it is this kind of thinking that Susan Sontag is trying to change. Her book has given me a fresh look on how to perceive these individuals, not to make a general consensus about all of them. Her point is that these illnesses are not metaphors; we cannot generalize a specific disease with specific people. The same way I cannot generalize people with AIDS as being sexually careless, doped up people. The illness is just that, a disease. Anyone can get it if they are not careful. It is this point of not generalizing people with illnesses that Sontag really got me to start thinking about.
I have never known anyone with HIV or AIDS. I am aware of its horrible effects and implications and have heard of it mostly from the metaphors of which Susan Sontag speaks. I have learned about the disease scientifically, but have never experienced the personal and emotion effects it reeks on its sufferers. I am glad for this but it also prevents me from knowing more about the disease (although I would much rather remain in the dark than face the inevitable painful death of someone I know).
The first few times I heard about AIDS, it was always in association with Africa. However, in my middle school there was a poster with AIDS information on it, highlighting in red dots the places and populations effected by AIDS. There was a large concentration of red dots in the United States and this surprised me. All of my previous exposures had been so distant, and I was shocked to find that so many people in closer geographic proximity were affected by this as well. This changed my perspective on the matter of AIDS and how it can actually affect anyone.
A passage by Sontag that really shows how my ignorance of AIDS being only in Africa is shared by many as seeing disease as coming from immigrants and third world countries.
“Epidemic diseases usually elicit a call to ban the entry of foreigners, immigrants. And xenophobic propaganda has always depicted immigrants as bearers of disease….It seems logical that the political figure in France who represents the most extreme nativist, racist views, Jean-Marie Le Pen, has attempted a strategy of fomenting fear of this new alien peril, insisting that AIDS is not just infections but contagious, and calling for mandatory nationwide testing and the quarantine of everyone carrying the virus.”
Sontag goes on to say that Aids is the “ideal projection for First World political paranoia…AIDS is the quintessential invader form the Third World.” This provokes racism and prejudice in the “First World” against those from the Third World. It gives more reason (although unjustified and unreasonable) for the new world to exclude, treat poorly, underpay, enslave, the Third World. This disease and the connotations with it of African origin and poor beginnings creates an automatic prejudice towards it and those who could be carrying it.
This is a sad realization, when one realizes that prejudice is often times based on ignorance and no real knowledge, only hearsay. I have known this for a while but seeing yet another example of it, and there are plenty of examples of this prejudice in Sontag’s book, can often cause one to lose a little faith in the thoughts and capabilities of humanity. Humanity can do some good things to redeem itself but many times social pressures and influential feeling about, say the implications, origins and reasonings of AIDS, can cause the mass population to feel and act in a way that is not appropriate or justified just because of fear and innate prejudice.
Television can be confusing as a child. They watch adult shows but do they fully understand what is being discussed? I know that I didn’t understand much of television when I was little. I first encounter of learned about HIV/AIDS occurred when I was watching a show one day that was interviewing people with diseases. There was a girl talking about how she has to continue on in life because there is no way of telling just how long she had left. The interview documented her daily life, such as getting ready, going to school, cooking, and eating. It was so strange to me that she knew she was dying but no one could do anything for her. Why? I didn’t understand. Actually I didn’t even understand what AIDS was. It is intriguing how as little kids we remember tidbits of information that we piece together later in life.
Since then, I have learned how the HIV/AIDS is transmitted, but I honestly have never had first hand observation of the disease. Much more information is yet to be obtained.
Why is it that our culture focuses so heavily on appearance? A healthy appearance implies a healthy person? Sontag addresses the problem of society being repulsed by the apparently ill or inflicted. I found this interesting because I remember a specific commercial of two men who eat the same diet, exercise the same length, but one has high cholesterol while the other one doesn’t. All too often, diseases linger inside the body, unnoticed by an outside observer. Sontag says that the diseases that are conventionally thought of as being most shameful are the ones that mark the flesh, including AIDS. I never thought of how those inflicted struggle with “progressive mutation, decomposition.” Same with syphilis, it marks the skin. Maybe society imposes these stereotypes upon the diseased. Referring back to television, the people on commercial for medication for genital warts don’t seem embarrassed or shameful. They are hidden away from most of society’s detection. Those with AIDS, just maybe aren’t so lucky?
The first time I was exposed to the concept of HIV/AIDS must have been in the sixth grade, when we had "family health week"; a sort of preview of Sex Ed. We watched a video with all the other sixth graders about sex, puberty, love-all that stuff. Most of us were already aware of those ideas, but what we were also introduced to were "STD's". I clearly remember thinking "Wow, that sounds really dangerous. I don't understand why anyone would have sex unless they were trying to have kids. Who would want to risk catching those?" Clearly, I had a very naive perspective back then. A little more educated now, I have come to a pretty good understanding about the virus and syndrome. I have learned about it in science class, and even listened to a guest who actually has AIDS speak at my school. It was presented to me as not something "evil" or "contagious", but rather as something disappointing, and life-changing-Something that makes a person hopeless, anxious, maybe even holding a feeling of guilt, wishing they could take a certain act back and relive the situation.
Now, I understand what HIV and AIDS are, and moreover, what they actually do and cause to the body, so I would never fear someone who possessed it. I would never want to "stay away" or avoid him or her. I would definitely feel sorry for the person, though.
I found it interesting that a common stereotype is that AIDS is common in gay communities. In academic settings, I was never introduced to this idea. I suppose I have heard it here and there in social situations, but I never took it into much consideration, as I usually think in scientific terms, and wouldn't actually believe that just because someone is homosexual, they are more likely to have AIDS. Anyone with a proper education could see that it is not that simple.
Reading Susan Sontag's essay, "AIDS and Its Metaphors", one idea really stuck out to me. On page 104 of her book, she writes "It seems that societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil, and attaches blame to its 'victims', but it is hard to be obsessed with more than one". I pondered this for a long time, and could not agree with Sontag more. The "obsession" is now AIDS. I feel that due to an intense fear of pain and death, people to turn to believing that AIDS does not just "happen". Rather, someone must put it upon themselves to contract it. But this is very ignorant. Society has, however become obsessed with the horror of the disease, and I very much agree that it is the new object of interest, of where to direct one's fears.
AIDS= The Silent Killer.
The first time that I really encountered AIDS was in my high school health class. Obviously I had learned about it prior to this, but I never fully understood what it was about, how someone becomes infected with it, and the stigma that it carries in today's society. During my high school health class I learned about the disease, how on a cellular level it infects people, how it is transmitted, and everything else that one could possibly learn about it at an elementary level. Despite this, the most defining moment that I remember about this health class and aids was when we watched a movie on the topic. I recall a vivid scene where there were two gentlemen who were at a bathhouses. For better or worse, this is what I generally associate with AIDS. Another spectrum through which I have learned about AIDS is in history class. It is becoming increasing difficult to ignore the AIDS epidemic when studying history. With so much of the third world population suffering form AIDS/HIV infections, it is certainly one of the most pressing issues that needs to be dealt with immediately.
One of the passages from Susan Sontag's book that I found enlightening and eye opening dealt with that concept of infection. In our society we perceive people infected with AIDS/HIV differently from all other people. The reality and truth of the fact is that they are no different. As a society, we seem to set them in their own subgroup and alienate them. They are not contagious, they do not act differently, and they just lead different lifestyles.
This passage impacted me because it really made me more aware to the situation that those infected have to deal with. They must feel alienated and distanced from the rest of society. Reading this passage has made me more aware of the societal dilemma that we are facing.
I don’t really remember the exact moment that I became aware of HIV. I do know I had some sense of the disease from a fairly young age. I remember learning about Magic Johnson being sick with HIV, but I had no clue what that actually meant. I began a gradual awareness first with things my parents told me about how it attacks the immune system. I learned more about the illness in science classes and health in high school. I still can’t say that I know a great deal about the exact symptoms and workings of it even after all of that. I guess my initial associations with the disease were with Magic. Then when the disease became more publicized it became associated with homosexual men in the mindset of the public, and I was no exception to that. Now, I associate the disease with a wider array of people infected, but the thing that sticks out in my mind is Africa. I think this is because of things like the Red Campaign and the huge concert that was held recently. Maybe it is also what Sontag talks about of us liking such a painful thing to be foreign.
Sontag writes, “The unsafe behavior that produces AIDS is judged to be more than just weakness. It is indulgence, delinquency—addictions to chemicals that are illegal and sex regarded as deviant” (113). This passage struck me because for such a debilitating illness, that no doubt no one wishes for, it is intriguing to think that the AIDS sufferer has some kind of blame placed on them. I find that no matter how horrible and politically incorrect this is, it is an opinion that is out there. The opinion that the person with AIDS must have done something unspeakable to contract the disease and even more than that, they did it willingly suggests that the person has some kind of death wish. It also takes away some of the empathy that most with an illness produce.
I do not remember specifically when I first learned about HIV/AIDS, but it was probably sometime in middle school. My experience in learning about the disease has been vague, however. Fortunately, HIV/AIDS has never touched my life or the lives of those closest to me in any personal ways. Unfortunately, however, this means I have never taken a vested interest in learning about the disease. My understanding of HIV/AIDS is still very basic to this day.
Susan Sontag writes, “The unsafe behavior that produces AIDS is judged to be more than just weakness. It is indulgence, delinquency—addictions to chemicals that are illegal and to sex regarded as deviant” (p. 113). Because of these behaviors of which society disapproves, people with HIV/AIDS become an easy target for judgment. Sontag goes on to refer to “a whole politics of ‘the will’—of intolerance, of paranoia, of fear of political weakness [that] has fastened on this disease” (p.151). I believe that this second quote does a great deal to explain the first. It is because of fear, because of paranoia that people feel the need to judge others. Too often, society today fears weakness and desires power. It follows, then, that these same people would seek power by judging those regarded as weak.
I was introduced to the idea of AIDS at a relatively young age. I was in 2nd grade and there was a special on 20/20 about the syndrome. At such a young age, I cannot remember much of what it was about. I just remember asking my parents what it was about, what it all meant. My dad said, “It is a disease the fags get.”
I think that at that age, I did not know I was gay. As I became aware of my sexuality later on in life, I found that these types of incidents in my childhood made me uncomfortable with who I was. I felt unsafe and that I should be ashamed, because if anyone found out, I would get AIDS (This was still in 5th grade). AIDS meant death. It represented a horrible path that ended in hell.
Sontag’s goal in her writing was to remove these false pretenses, these “metaphors”. She presented information as to exactly what HIV and AIDS are, demystifying the sicknesses, revealing them. It was all relatively familiar, but every now and then, I would come across something that just made sense and opened my mind to deeper and more intellectual thinking.
Society structures our values and beliefs. Somehow it influences every individual within it to have similar reactions and to become socialized as to the norms that are acceptable. In America, it is evident that a “capitalist society increasingly restricts the scope and credibility of appeals to ethical principals” (Sontag, p99). In a sense, Society is at odds with capitalism. The market structure is designed to have businesses vie to be the leader in the market. They can only achieve such a position by pushing the envelope.
Epidemics have plagued humanity since before anyone has been able to remember. The bible tells of the plagues that haunted Egypt. In Shakespearean Times, the black plague prowled through Great Britain, carried by fleas. The Influenza Epidemic killed more people in the 1920’s than World War II did. But with the advancement of modern medicine, each plague is no longer a concern for future generations. Even cancer has become an almost treatable condition. It is no longer the death sentence that it once was. But “societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil” (Sontag p104). AIDS and HIV have seeped into our society. It is essentially incurable and is associated with the personal vices of its host.
I don’t personally know anybody who has been affected by HIV/AIDS nor do I have any kind of personal story relating my life to this topic. I don’t even exactly know when I heard of this the first time. Although, I probably first learned about the HIV/AIDS disease in my health class in middle school. I think we just learned about the facts of this disease and how it is transmitted directly through body fluid. We learned how to protect ourselves by safe sex and not sharing needles or doing drugs.
In Susan Songtag’s book, “AIDS and its Metaphors” one line that particularly struck me was, “The unsafe behavior that produced AIDS is judged to be more than just a weakness. It is indulgence, delinquency- addictions to chemicals that are illegal and to sex regarded as deviant.” (113) I chose this line because from this, one can see how easy it is to protect yourself. AIDS isn’t like cancer, in that it unexpectedly infects you. You can’t protect yourself from cancer or take any precautions. You get AIDS from something you can control like not sharing needles or having unprotected sex. This line made me reflect on my life to see if I was doing enough to protect myself from this terrible disease.
I had a hard time remembering the first time I became aware of HIV/AIDS. I knew that my mother had a close friend that passed away when I was about 5 or 6 from a disease, but I didn't learn until ten years after that he had passed away because of AIDS. I remember in middle school someone did a project on the HIV/AIDS epidemic occurring in Africa, but that is all I can recall learning about it. I can't even remember discussing the disease later on in high school. (Needless to say, sex education was extremely lacking at my school)
I have never known anyone with HIV/AIDS and so I had never had to deal, on a personal level, with it. However, as I mentioned in class, seeing the film Philadelphia totally changed my perception of the disease as well as educated me about the disease.
I found the passage on page 132-33 discussing the metaphor of AIDS as a plague extremely revealing. Sontag expressed that some people view epidemics inflicted upon groups of people as a type of punishment. She discussed the metaphor of AIDS as a plague, a punishment. It automatically reminded me of the hateful words I have heard groups say regarding the issue of HIV/AIDS among the queer community. Some have said that AIDS is the punishment that gay and lesbians deserve for their "behavior". Statements such as these are obviously born out of fear and ignorance but maybe through the study of these metaphors people use, we can gain a better understanding of where these statements come from and why people view HIV/AIDS in the ways they do.
I first became aware of HIV/AIDS sometime in middle school through health class and documentaries we’d watch about poverty in inner cities. My first impressions were that AIDS was a punishment for being promiscuous or engaging in homosexual sex. The disease seemed disgusting. I remember watching a movie that followed a woman living with the virus. They captured her as she was taking her medication “cocktail”, several thick pills that made her run to the bathroom and gag on camera. Overall, my early impression was that people who couldn’t control themselves, who were too lustful or corrupt, got AIDS. It never was plausible, until recently, that AIDS is a disease that affects everyone, within every demographic from people in monogamous relationships, to children. But even though it effects everyone, it’s still perpetuated as an “us” and “them” disease. Sontag argues that disease is another vehicle that society uses to reinforce stereotypes, which support the white upper-middle classes’ agenda. What their agenda is, is the formation of cultural norms in their favor to further suppress other groups. AIDS “further strengthens the culture of self interest,” says Sontag. Therefore “them” are minorities, homosexuals, and the poor, societies typical outcasts, who are even more stigmatized with the onset of this illness.
In 1993, I was sitting in a hotel room watching a movie with my mom. The movie we were watching was “Philadelphia.” This movie left a huge impression on me. For me, the disease has always been a mystery. I did not have family members or friends that had the disease, nor did I have friends that knew of anybody who had the disease.
Not until my teenage years did I slowly uncover the mystery of HIV/AIDS. There was a close skater friend of mine that was diagnosed with HIV. His name is Rudy Galindo, he is the first openly gay man to win a U.S national skating title. Rudy’s older brother died in 1994, his brother contracted HIV while in prison, serving time for embezzlement. Two of his coaches eventually died of AIDS, too. In 2002 he was diagnosed with necrosis, a degenerative disease affecting both hips, it was a side effect of the HIV medication he was taking. Not only was it devastating to hear about his diagnosis of HIV, but also the possibility of him never skating again. I know how much skating meant to Rudy, it was his whole world. Luckily after getting both hips replaced and months of physical therapy he has made it back on the ice.
In 2000 I took a HIV/AIDS class at UCLA. I am glad that I took that class because it informed me on all the questions I ever had about the disease. Because it is easy to think that AIDS is something for other people to worry about – gay people, drug users, people who sleep around.
In Susan Sontag’s book, “Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors, I was surprised to learn that a large number of people with diseases feel shunned by relatives and friends. Sontag writes,” Contact with someone afflicted with a disease regarded as a mysterious malevolency inevitably feels like a trespass; worse, like the violation of a taboo. I believe that musicals like Rent or movies like Philadelphia have played an important role in humanizing certain diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Books, magazines, and the Internet have also help make positive steps towards informing people about the disease.
You've all discussed many important aspects of how you first learned about HIV/AIDS and how our larger culture also thinks of it. I, too, can remember seeing stories in the media that emphasized the connections between gay men and then other minorities as being somehow responsible for their illness. As many of you have pointed out, this is exactly the kind of thinking that Susan Sontag urges us to reconsider.
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