A few months ago, I came across this picture printed and pinned up on a pole in Northeast Philly. Though I was not able to apply the principles of queer theory to this image then, I can now analyze the message with an entirely new framework of interpretation. I can’t tell how long ago this picture was taken, but the message “AIDS is not in recession” still rings true for many repressed Americans hindered by low socioeconomic status and/or non-hegemonic identity.
Judith Halberstam spends a substantial amount of time in chapter one of her novel, In a Queer Time and Place, analyzing the negative consequences for “expendable” (3) individuals living in neglected pockets of the United States during the AIDS epidemic. I believe that Halberstam would applaud the social protest conveyed by this image as a strong push against who and what America’s capitalistic society has deemed important.
Halberstam suggests that while many middle class heterosexual Americans obsess over a long-term push to procreate and pass on industrial normative values (4), there are pockets of disadvantaged individuals battling for their own short-term survival (3). The AIDS epidemic modeled in this image represents that battle, and the corresponding eternal capitalistic chiasm that exists between those at the top and those at the bottom of America’s hierarchy. “Aids is not in recession” can be used as a microcosm for all past and present epidemics that force a queer subset of society to beg for intervention.
This may be a stretch, but I believe that this image, as well as Halberstam’s message can be seen as a call to action for all of those basking in the capitalistic hierarchy to step down from the ladder that has been built by unjustly flattening those who are not able to conform. Halberstam tells us that queer time exists outside of the conventions preset by society, that queer time produces a different set of expectations for an alternative life. I believe that all of this is true, but I also believe that as a capitalistic society that thrives off of homogeneity, queer individuals are doomed to face an unjust amount of neglect and discrimination unless those at the top shift their perspectives downwards. “Aids is not in recession”, and neither is America’s discrimination against our queer citizens, ethnic minorities and impoverished persons.
This is one of the many consequences or outcomes of the War on Drugs. Lower income communities have less access to clean needles or safe transmissions of drugs, or even education regarding these issues. This is why harm reduction is such an important concept for people to grasp. Even though individually one might not participate in taking such substances, does not mean that others will do the same. Therefore by changing the mentality of drug tolerance, it will hopefully reduce the number of victims of the virus.
I really enjoyed your post and how you related the reading to a real life experience. At the end of your post you talk about how queer time will never happen unless people and society change their perspectives. This is very similar to another post that is saying the same message but shows it through a TV character. She doesn’t fit into societies norms but she isn’t treat differently, and if this could happen with everyone that queer time wouldn’t have to even exist.