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Thread Re the AIDS storyline in 13 Reasons Why
I grew up in the South with minimal school sex education & parents who were unaware that HIV treatment had progressed beyond 1996. As I understood it, HIV was A) an immediate death sentence without any kind of treatment and B)
I grew up in the South with minimal school sex education & parents who were unaware that HIV treatment had progressed beyond 1996. As I understood it, HIV was A) an immediate death sentence without any kind of treatment and B)
B) was almost certainly to infect you C) would show up in test results almost immediately after infection.
Why? Because in the absence of proper sex education, my understanding came from movies and TV. So I learned from Kids, Trainspotting, Philadelpia, and Dallas Buyers Club
Why? Because in the absence of proper sex education, my understanding came from movies and TV. So I learned from Kids, Trainspotting, Philadelpia, and Dallas Buyers Club
When I was about 20, I ended up becoming convinced that I was HIV+ and that therefore, I was doomed. What I didn’t know was that HIV is not nearly as contagious as the films make it seem. Nor did I know how manageable it is with medicine nowadays.
Nor did I have an accurate understanding of how long it took to show up in one’s bloodstream. What’s more, my friend’s couldn’t help, because they knew even less than I did. I ended up having something of a mental breakdown, spending about 6 months convinced my life was over.
Ultimately it turned out, I had an entirely unrelated health issue. I was not HIV+. But I realized that I had a completely inaccurate understanding of the disease. And so did pretty much everyone I knew. Both in my parent’s age group and in my own.
Nobody I knew was aware that PreP existed. Almost nobody I knew was aware that HIV was far from a death sentence anymore. Why? Because like me, most of their understanding came from movies and TV.
As best I can tell, sex ed isn’t improving. Which means, kids are going to get their education elsewhere. And having a TV show where a character gets HIV, sees it almost IMMEDIATELY progress to AIDS, and dies without hope of treatment in 2020? I mean come on.
That doesn’t encourage safe behavior because it’s not realistic. It’s just pure fear and shock tactics. Instead, it continues to stigmatize those who live with the virus. This isn’t the kind of image we need in 2020. I cannot emphasize enough how irresponsible this is.
