Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site emacs.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!cca!emacs!joe From: joe@emacs.UUCP (Joe Chapman) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Media accounts of AIDS, and a brief digression Message-ID: <102@emacs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 22:49:03 EDT Article-I.D.: emacs.102 Posted: Wed Oct 2 22:49:03 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 4-Oct-85 15:11:10 EDT Distribution: na Organization: Uniworks Inc., Wellesley, MA Lines: 53 <> Recent reading: Harper's for October has a panel discussion on AIDS that is one of the most coherent and intelligent presentations on the subject I can remember seeing in the media over the past several months. Some quotes: Gary McDonald (AIDS Action Council): ``Look, I think the moment may have arrived to desexualize this disease. AIDS is not a ``gay disease,'' despite its epidemiology. Yet we homosexualize it, and by doing so end up posing the wrong questions. There is no evidence to support the notion that gay men in general are immunocompromised because they engage in anal intercourse, despite the fact that semen itself may be immuno- suppresive in some circumstances. And gay men have been doing this for centuries with no dire consequences.'' Mervyn Silverman (a consultant) (no joke): ``... And there are certainly erotic and exciting sexual activities that do not entail an exchange of body fluids. Use your imagination.'' Ann Giudici Fettner (New York Native): ``Use your imagination? What kind of educational message is that?'' Mathew Shebar (Gay Men's Health Crisis): ``Margaret Heckler ... I call her the secretary of health and heterosexual services.'' Along (alas) lines more typical of the media of the Republic, the magazine New York for the 7th inst. purports to bear within its pages ``The Last Word on Avoiding AIDS''. Some good material---a little better than the Enquirer's coverage---particularly with regard to catching the disease through casual contact. On the other hand, as soon as New York enters the bedroom things go a little haywire. There are a few choice nuggets: a sidebar labelled THE NEW SEXUAL ETIQUETTE advises: ``If you're a single woman, remember---no casual sex ever again,'' says one expert. ``Know your partner. Know whether he ever had a homosexual experience or used injected drugs in the past eight years.'' One unworthy identified only as ``Kaplan of the Human Sexuality Program at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center'' [ I assume he wears a trenchcoat and introduces himself as ``Kaplan of the Center'' ] refers to ``these high-risk people, these Typhoid Marys''. It's possible he meant this as a dish. If he did, this is the only dish in the article. The magazine is hardly worth dashing out and buying for the article in question. I myself bought it to get the show times for ``Vampire Lesbians of Sodom'', a play which sounds oddly like the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes remade for the Village. A report of which, subject to its intrinsic merit, the availability of tickets, and the fickle whims of my fair traveling companion, may be forthcoming... -- -- Joe Chapman joe@cca-unix decvax!cca!emacs!joe "I'd be a narcissist, but I'm not my type" Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com