Social suffering as structural and symbolic violence : LGBT experiences in the Face of AIDS film archive
Capitolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2019
Citazione:
Social suffering as structural and symbolic violence : LGBT experiences in the Face of AIDS film archive / M. Bacio, C. Rinaldi - In: A Visual History of HIV/AIDS : Exploring The Face of AIDS film archive / [a cura di] E. Björklund, M. Larsson. - Prima edizione. - London : Routledge, 2019. - ISBN 9781138503243. - pp. 135-149
Abstract:
The cultural and sociological analysis of AIDS gives researchers the chance to consider the alarming concentration of HIV among vulnerable populations. Even if explicit discrimination has decreased at least in some Western countries, both in developed states – within their ethnic and racial minority groups and marginal populations (i.e., sex workers) – and in developing countries there are individuals living with HIV who experience structural and symbolic violence due to poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia/transphobia, gender inequality, social exclusion, stigmatization, or religious and sexual oppression (Farmer 2001; Parker 2002; Bourdieu 1990; 2001). This is especially true if we consider that the HIV/AIDS epidemic requires us to consider LGBT issues – especially connected to health – as transnational phenomena that are interconnected with local practices and meanings.
As stated by Ann Cvetkovich in An Archive of Feeling: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures, queer archives “address particular versions of the determination to ‘never forget’ that gives archives of traumatic history their urgency” (Cvetkovich 2003: 242). Even if any documentary or visual product, as any other cultural object, is not a neutral product and further research is needed to interpret Hildebrand’s gaze, the Face of AIDS film archive consists of assemblages of desires, experiences, narratives, and accounts, depictions of political conditions and individual resistance that challenge the coherence of a (single) narrative. Following Cvetkovich, Hildebrand’s project is not aimed to search for “what really happened” or “what is really happening,” neither is it “linearly structured around canonical events” (Edenheim 2013) but provides the chance to pay attention to ephemeral events and fragments that both give the archive a sense of urgency and deeply challenge the normative order (related to standardized form of expression, to plot construction and definition, to the expected audience, and to the values at stake). While HIV- or AIDS-affected individuals are telling their stories they are at the same time offering potential listeners the chance to recognize what has been said. They are proffering a political statement and claiming social and sexual justice. As Boltanski stated, societies can offer two main kinds of reactions to suffering: the politics of pity and the politics of justice (Boltanski 1999). Interviews by Hildebrand do not focus merely on the pietistic aspects of their health status but ask the listener to consider the iniquities and structural disadvantages we are all forced to face. In particular, the gay population, the main subject of this chapter, offers their own biographies to the listeners: in this case, we all risk imprudently to “blame the victim” – as many of the same individuals with HIV from vulnerable groups because of their social class, ethnicity/race, or gender identity usually do blame themselves. The action of blaming someone (or himself/herself ) contributes to the eradication of an event from its political or economic context and the construction of victim hierarchies where someone is more of a victim than somebody else. Within this stratification of bodies, people living with HIV or AIDS usually blame just themselves. Stories of HIV, especially in developing countries, are often narratives of poverty, social exclusion, discrimination, corruption, insecurity, emergency, or broken families because of the exploitation of labor force, housing problems, stigmatization, religious persecution, ghetto or favela segregation, unavailability of antiretroviral drugs, and governmental unwillingness to provide treatments or implement health policies. Every story has a deep political meaning s
Tipologia IRIS:
03 - Contributo in volume
Keywords:
HIV; AIDS; LGBT; viloence
Elenco autori:
M. Bacio, C. Rinaldi
Link alla scheda completa:
Titolo del libro:
A Visual History of HIV/AIDS : Exploring The Face of AIDS film archive