Relatability....

 

Since the beginning of promoting HIV meds there's been the problem of relatability.  I remember an ad for Combivir & it showed handsome man of color climbing a mountain.  I remember he was very bright, smiling & looked like he'd never been tired, let alone sick, a day in his life.  I was on the med at the time & I didn't even feel like going outside, let alone something as strenuous as rock climbing.  It was so bad, the concept of accurate advertising of HIV meds made it into a Queer As Folk episode.

For years, TV & net ads have followed a similar path of being unrelatable.  While White Gay men still get the blame for most of HIV & Gay issues.   They're also the group that got this ball rolling in regards to health, awareness & treatment.   But now, they're fairly underrepresented in ads.  Teens are a pressing group, but nothing there either.  It's not uncommon to see an HIV med ad without any woman who weren't trans.

What do they use?  They use very niche, upbeat POC's mostly.  Nothing wrong with that if others are included.   Few, if any of these, are presented as the proverbial, straight person.  A lot of awareness is focusing on glitzy, ethnic musicians & drag queens.  Sure that'll normalize the way people see HIV & those living with it.  

The worst part of it is still, these people look upbeat, happy, energetic & super healthy.  Maybe some people do feel like that on these meds.  I haven't really felt any of that since I've been diagnosed & the meds didn't fix that.  Not only are these ads not relatable to a lot of people, they're very unrealistic.  You won't be Maria singing your lungs about as you hikes up a mountain.  You might very well be struggling just to get through your day.

I know their picture is prettier, but it's a lie.   When that doesn't happen for a newly diagnosed person, it'll just make their life that much harder.  When it comes to health matters, ugly truths are kinder than pretty lies.

Take care.

Cya...

So This Is...

 

Growing up, we're filled with a lot of other people's ideas, notions, delusions, hopes, beliefs...  Most of this focuses on how things are, will or should be.  These things come from our families, friends, peers, leaders, media, etc... The problem is these ideas rarely hold up to when tested.  

We're told how we should live.  We're given work ethics & expectations.  They tell us of wonders, horrors, gods, heroes & villains.  But these things are what they were told by those who came before them.  Ours is a culture of should be's & not what is.

A specific point would be the holidays.  My roomie & I were raised with certain notions about the Christmas & what it should be.  Her experience is different than mine, her birthday's in the mix.  But the expectations of the holidays never held up.  They always started off right but then went askew.  They never provided what was alluded to & in the end were always a let down.

Now, being the kids we were, we questioned if this was somehow our doing.  I'm sure we would've got blamed for it if we asked.  But after the holiday specials, pretty lights, decorations & food; it all went back to normal.  The production of it all became apparent.  It was just a show we put on for ourselves. 

As adults, we used to try to emulate those early memories of Christmas.  Slowly we let them slide.  It was weird to do that.  It felt a bit like failing.   But, as time went by, we defined what the holiday would be for us.  Instead of a single big day, we'd try to do little things throughout the month.  We'd try for things to brighten up our lives without hoping for some grand event that would never come.

Are our holidays grand?  No, but that may be beyond what we can muster any more.  What they are is, ours.  They're our holidays.  They fit us & our wants, needs.  It's taken time to accept, but I think we have.  Now, after holiday our redefinition, it seems maybe a lot of other people are undergoing the same process.  What do these days mean to us?  What do we want/need out of them?  What are we willing/capable of doing for them without harming ourselves now or later?

Christmas isn't gone for us, but it's not what it was.  Part of me misses that.  I miss the lights, laughter & grandness.  I miss Winter parties at the theatre, huge parades & driving around looking at lights on beautiful homes.  But those things are memories now.

Sometimes acceptance feels like failure.  May be it is or maybe it's just letting the curtain drop & seeing the reality of it all.  A part of me will always have wished this was a lesson I hadn't had to learn.  But there are so many of those in our lives.

Take care, Happy Holidays.

Cya...

OK, Back To Yuck...

For years some in the fight against HIV had, what I considered, unrealistic dreams.   They thought they could stop transmissions by 2020.   They thought they could get medications & medical services to everyone.   They really had their pie in the sky.    

They had a plan, it was bold.  What they didn't have was capital.  They thought people like USA would fork it over.   The US did quite a bit for a while, so did a host of other countries.   But that was all dependant on politics.  As those shifted to a more radically, conservative nature, those funds began to dry up.   Now, the US is cutting nearly everything it can concerning the fight against  HIV.

We could be at the beginning of a resurgence of HIV.   All due to bad economic choices, hateful conservatism, blame & bias.   The fight against HIV is returning to it's classist, stigmatized roots.  So much for those plans for 2020.  We'll  be lucky not to see numbers soar as the funds dwindle.

Cya..

PS - Whatever good sleep weather we had went back to whence it came last night.  Last night was rough & this morning is gloomy.  Yuck.