Throughout history, the social progress, and sometimes regress, that has occurred can be explored by examining the situations deemed worthy of social and legal intervention by the most influential powers of that time period. Constructing a culpable, highly visible character as a metaphor for an emerging social or political concern is a recurring and sometimes convoluted way of regaining control of, or subduing, a perceived issue by a dominant group in society.
Adopting a monster as a metaphor redirects the straightforward approach that may otherwise be used when confronted with a metaphor in more realistic, plausible area of popular literature. However, in the genre of horror, the environment in which monsters are created, develop and thrive, …show more content…
They are a clear and evident menace to the health of their patrons. It is our duty to protect these people from themselves, if we are forced to. Persons who deal with others in an intimate way so that they may be obvious potential carriers must be tested for AIDS antibodies. This would include food preparers and servers, doctors and nurses, teachers and others. If their test for AIDS antibodies comes up positive twice, they can no longer be permitted their normal functions. This is a harsh measure and I recognise and regret it. On the other hand, the AIDS virus has no civil rights.’ (Spannaus, 185, p.62) McGrath reduces the people living with AIDs, and the people surrounded by those living AIDs, to only the disease itself, removing all human elements and leaving only the metaphorical monster that must be …show more content…
The general feeling was that the ‘Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome seemed a comfortably distant threat to most of those who had heard of it before’ that was exclusively ‘the misfortune of people who fit into rather distinct classes of outcasts and social pariahs.’ (Shilts, 1987, p.1) The virus was seen as an issue faced by those that were removed from everyday society and that had, as far as they were aware, been generally uninvolved and seperate from the American heterosexual population. This view began to change due to the highly visible and frequently reported political activism of a community comprised of articulate, educated young men and women that formed groups such as ACT UP and other, resulting organisations like TAG. (Gould, 2009) ACT UP, and and it’s leaders changed the face of LGBTQ public relations in the U.S. and facilitated the life prolonging treatment that turned AIDs from a terminal diagnosis to a chronic disease.
The AIDs epidemic in the U.S. alone had a lasting impression on both the homosexual and heterosexual communities involved in advocating, or preventing, the medical research and treatment of AIDs. The polarised views of those confronted by the disease and the conservative party’s attitudes created new political activist groups, preconceptions and stigmas surrounding sexuality
Adopting a monster as a metaphor redirects the straightforward approach that may otherwise be used when confronted with a metaphor in more realistic, plausible area of popular literature. However, in the genre of horror, the environment in which monsters are created, develop and thrive, …show more content…
They are a clear and evident menace to the health of their patrons. It is our duty to protect these people from themselves, if we are forced to. Persons who deal with others in an intimate way so that they may be obvious potential carriers must be tested for AIDS antibodies. This would include food preparers and servers, doctors and nurses, teachers and others. If their test for AIDS antibodies comes up positive twice, they can no longer be permitted their normal functions. This is a harsh measure and I recognise and regret it. On the other hand, the AIDS virus has no civil rights.’ (Spannaus, 185, p.62) McGrath reduces the people living with AIDs, and the people surrounded by those living AIDs, to only the disease itself, removing all human elements and leaving only the metaphorical monster that must be …show more content…
The general feeling was that the ‘Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome seemed a comfortably distant threat to most of those who had heard of it before’ that was exclusively ‘the misfortune of people who fit into rather distinct classes of outcasts and social pariahs.’ (Shilts, 1987, p.1) The virus was seen as an issue faced by those that were removed from everyday society and that had, as far as they were aware, been generally uninvolved and seperate from the American heterosexual population. This view began to change due to the highly visible and frequently reported political activism of a community comprised of articulate, educated young men and women that formed groups such as ACT UP and other, resulting organisations like TAG. (Gould, 2009) ACT UP, and and it’s leaders changed the face of LGBTQ public relations in the U.S. and facilitated the life prolonging treatment that turned AIDs from a terminal diagnosis to a chronic disease.
The AIDs epidemic in the U.S. alone had a lasting impression on both the homosexual and heterosexual communities involved in advocating, or preventing, the medical research and treatment of AIDs. The polarised views of those confronted by the disease and the conservative party’s attitudes created new political activist groups, preconceptions and stigmas surrounding sexuality