The Implicated and the Immune: Cultural Responses to AIDS

Abstract

Unlike previous epidemics in American history, AIDS has spawned a host of creative works in the arts and mass media. Representations in the fine arts have emphasized perspectives of the insider or the "implicated," i.e., people with AIDS, while commercial programs and performers in popular culture have adopted the vantage point of the "immune," viewing AIDS as emblematic of a stigmatized "other." These cultural responses embody tensions between contemporary and traditional approaches to social life. Some television and commercial films are beginning to portray AIDS from the "implicated" perspective, however; this tentative change suggests that the epidemic is becoming more broadly experienced in the United States.