{"id":883,"date":"2016-02-17T16:24:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=883"},"modified":"2016-02-17T16:24:43","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:24:43","slug":"aids-is-not-in-recession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2016\/02\/17\/aids-is-not-in-recession\/","title":{"rendered":"Aids Is Not in Recession"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aids\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019t tell how long ago this picture was taken, but the message \u201cAIDS is not in recession\u201d still rings true for many repressed Americans hindered by low socioeconomic status and\/or non-hegemonic identity.<\/p>\n

Judith Halberstam spends a substantial amount of time in chapter one of her novel, In a Queer Time and Place<\/em>, analyzing the negative consequences for \u201cexpendable\u201d (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\u2019s capitalistic society has deemed important.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s hierarchy. \u201cAids is not in recession\u201d can be used as a microcosm for all past and present epidemics that force a queer subset of society to beg for intervention.<\/p>\n

This may be a stretch, but I believe that this image, as well as Halberstam\u2019s 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. \u201cAids is not in recession\u201d, and neither is America\u2019s discrimination against our queer citizens, ethnic minorities and impoverished persons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019t tell how long ago this … Continue reading Aids Is Not in Recession<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}