Word: hiv
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Upon further investigation, I discovered that the T-shirts are not a new fashion at all. They debuted in 2000, and they are the brainchild of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African AIDS advocacy group. They were conceived of as a way to combat stigma against HIV and AIDS after a South African activist in the country was killed owing to popular disapproval of her openness about her own HIV-positive status...
...this page last week, three Harvard students waxed poetic about the power of the T-shirt in an op-ed entitled, “We are all HIV-Positive.” Actually, no, we are not. Regrettable title aside, the piece went on to declare: “The ‘HIV POSITIVE’ T-shirt, then, is an intentionally provocative rebuke to inaction. It battles the silence, apathy, and stigma that impede awareness, prevention, and treatment measures...
...HIV-Positive T-shirt may be a useful tool in a place like South Africa, where huge numbers of those living there are infected yet efforts at awareness of treatment and prevention of the disease are stymied by fear of the attached stigma. But at a tolerant place such as Harvard, stigma and silence are not the problem. Community-wide, most of us have already acknowledged that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is devastating; our focus ought to be on the means by which we can marshal our University’s vast intellectual and monetary resources to bring aid to places...
...context, the HIV-Positive T-shirt and the language of its cotton army is a sad case of typical cause-jargon–the “movement” misses the point completely. There is a stigma associated with HIV because it gives way to a terrible disease that kills people. While having HIV is not something one should be ashamed of, it is not a source of pride either. There is nothing about HIV/AIDS to be positive about, aside from the prospect of a cure or accessible drugs. I, for one, am glad—if not proud?...
Furthermore, the T-shirt movement presumes that stigma will continue to exist unless we, the uninfected, can experience what it is like to be a person who is publicly HIV-positive—and that by wearing a cotton T-shirt, we can begin to understand. This is based on the idea that an awareness movement can only work if empathy exists. But the fact that I do not have HIV does not mean I lack compassion for those who are suffering...