So I missed out on today's lunch-time discussion because of an icky cold, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about stuff to talk (and write) about. Over the course of the day I've thought about the American health care system, social hierarchies, the 1.26 microseconds that will be lost every day because of the Chilean earthquake, Facebook as a cultural phenomenon, and AIDS. (Staying home from work really gave me time to think about the really important things in life, you know?)
Writing a blog about all of these things would take far too long, so I guess I wanted to focus my energies on the last topic since I just recently saw Philadelphia for the first time. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, it is about a lawyer who sues his law firm for unfair dismissal. Over the course of the movie, we see how people (in public, on the prosecution, and on the defense) respond to the issues of homosexuality, homophobia, and AIDS.
As I watched the movie, I wondered how much things have changed since the early nineties. My first inclination is to say that things have changed a lot. I don't think people fear AIDS like they did when Philadelphia came out - probably because we understand the virus better now. People no longer see AIDS as a "gay cancer" or think that it can be contracted by handshakes or toilet seats. (I think that the face of AIDS changed when Magic Johnson's came out and told the public in 1991 that he tested positive for HIV; rich, otherwise healthy, heterosexual people could get AIDS, not just gays or drug users.) I don't think people would shy away from an infected person or avoid handshakes or hugs anymore. Things seem to be improving.
I also think that things are in the process of changing in terms of the homophobia shown in the film. I don't hear people say that gays "make them sick" or blow up at the very suggestion that they might be queer. Of course, those people might still feel angry or hate gays inwardly, but our society is showing signs of progress when that kind of behavior is deemed unacceptable. This step may not be big enough for proponents of gay rights and social change, but I think it is useful to look back at movies like Philadelphia to remind us that progress has been made.
I don't have a whole lot more to say on this topic right now. Basically, I just wanted to reflect a little bit on this movie and get some feedback on whether things have changed as much as I'd like to think. I welcome feedback, though I realize that this entry could just be for me and my musings about a great movie.
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Gage just came in to my office, and when I mentioned Philadelphia, he directed me to this clip. Hmm.
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One of the most memorable scenes for me was when Hanks was in the library with Washington quoting prior cases of AIDS discrimination. Here's a partial:
ReplyDelete"Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precede... which precedes the physical one. [...] This is the essence of discrimination: formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics."
This is interesting to me first because of how AIDS was viewed (as a handicap), but it also gives us a working definition of discrimination - a popular lunch-time topic. Hope this addition is useful.
So I was brushing up on some gansta rap (this time it was NWA's "Straight Outta Compton") and, after brief Wiki-ing, found that Eazy-E died from AIDS at age 31 in 1995, like two weeks after he was diagnosed with it. And he left seven children.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing was pretty shocking to me, since I didn't even know Eazy-E was dead.
http://www.eazy-ecpt.com/life.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Outta_Compton