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  Fact Sheet
21
The Language of AIDS

This Fact Sheet explores the language and symbols surrounding AIDS and HIV, including social constructions of HIV/AIDS as a "Gay Disease", a "War", and a commodity to be marketed. Also examined are issues surrounding the social stigma of ‘risk’ and the power struggle inherent in discourse of HIV/AIDS.

.Fact Sheet #21 is one of an on-going series. Visit the catalogue of Briefing Documents and Fact Sheets.

Go to the related Briefing Document.

The Fact Sheets are created by AIDS Calgary Awareness Association

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Language as Social Construction

Literal meaning behind language is accompanied by and inextricably linked to social, historical, political, and experiential factors pertaining to the speaker, the listener, and the environments of both. For people living with HIV and AIDS, the language around their disease is problematic because it is prevalent among marginalized groups and can provide a covert or overt means to express disapproval with the lifestyles of said groups.

AIDS as a "Gay (Male) Disease"

There are a number of social and scientific factors which have led to the perpetuation of the assumption that AIDS is restricted to the gay male population. Discoveries of deaths in previously healthy gay males from rare and rarely fatal diseases prompted gay (male) liberationists to become AIDS activists. Early exposure of the disease within the gay male population also led to public discussions of safe sex within both the gay and heterosexual press. In addition, scientific hypotheses focussed on aspects of the disease more closely related to gay men, particularly sexual transmission.


The "War" Against AIDS

Disease is often discussed as an ‘invasion’ of ‘alien’ organisms. Similarly, the body is said to ‘attack’ the organism using immunological ‘defenses’. The "war" against AIDS is a call to mass ideological mobilization, to ‘defeat the enemy’ with money for support and research. On the other hand, the war metaphor "implements the way particularly dreaded diseases are envisaged as an alien ‘other’, as enemies are in modern war; and the move from the demonization of the illness to the attribution of fault to the patient is an inevitable one".

The Commodification of AIDS

Research and support for people with AIDS and HIV depends on funding from governments, social agencies, and the public. This is problematic, due to the ‘embarrassing’ means through which the virus is transmitted. The image of the PLWHA is softened through ribbon campaigns and celebrity photo opportunities, leading to increased exposure and funding, but also encouraging unrealistic portrayals of PLWHA.

"Risk" Factors and Social Stigma

Though it is vitally important to identify behaviors that are more likely to result in the transmission of HIV, the term ‘risk’ implies a certain amount of ‘choice’. The danger here, is the shift from ‘risk assessment’ to ‘blame’ - the idea that these behaviors are not necessary, but chosen, thus the PLWHA ‘deserves’ to contract HIV. Serious social stigma stems from the association of these ‘risk groups’ with illegal drugs and ‘deviant’ sex. The term ‘behavior group’ is more linguistically neutral, however it can still be linked to the means through which HIV is transmitted.

The Canadian AIDS Society has taken positive steps to promoting the non-judgmental assessment of behavioral factors contributing to the transmission of HIV. They state that "In order to achieve and to reinforce positive behavior change, it is important to affirm both sexuality and risk reduction and to acknowledge the key role they play in personal health". By placing risk reduction in the purview of ‘personal health’, CAS moves the discussion to more neutral linguistic ground.

Power and AIDS

For a PLWHA, the diversity of the personal experience and the multifaceted nature of self are often lost to a dichotomy of power. On one hand, there is the image of the ‘suffering victim’, the child-like, guiltless martyr to this ‘merciless’ disease. This implies passivity and powerlessness and denies PLWHA agency in facing their disease. On the other hand, there is the vision of the ‘empowered’ hero, battling the ‘evil menace’ to the last - an unrealistic expectation for people dealing with serious illness.

The term People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) focuses on empowered ‘living’ with the disease as opposed to passive ‘victimization’ by the disease. The term has been adopted by most AIDS organizations and some health care organizations, however it remains in the vocabularies of many medical professionals, politicians, press, and so on. PLWHA must work against powerful political, social and economic forces in order to gain control over the discourse surrounding HIV and AIDS.

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