Food and housing insecurity are systemic problems that individuals living with HIV/AIDs face. In this post, I will discuss the sociological and cultural perspectives portrayed in cultural products about the food and housing insecurity faced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). The cultural products that will be discussed in this post include cartoons and videos. However cultural products include memes, cartoons, videos, apparel and any other product produced by a culture that sends a message to its viewer.
To give you some background, HIV affects 36.7 million people worldwide and 30% of individuals affected are unaware of their HIV status. The following is a breakdown of the global distribution of individuals living with HIV.
East and Southern Africa - 19.4 million
Western and Central Africa - 6.1 million
Asia and Pacific - 5.1 million
Western and Central Europe and North America - 2.1 million
Latin America and the Caribbean - 2.1 million
East Europe and Central Asia - 1.6 million
Middle East and North Africa - 230,000
The following cultural products illustrate the stigma faced by PLHIV during the 1980s AIDS epidemic. This stigma has carried on into the present day, continuing to negatively impact PLHIV's ability to receive equitable health care and governmental aid. This phenomenon is the subject of the following article: HIV Stigma and Discrimination.
There is a sociological perspective present in this political cartoon, which was published in 1989. In this cartoon, the tortoise whose shell reads "too little too late" is climbing the mountain of wooden caskets of the deceased victims of the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Sociologically, this cartoon emphasizes the government's slow and insufficient response to the disease that rapidly claimed the lives of gay and bisexual, and black and Hispanic men (CDC). Transgender women were also heavily affected by the disease. As a result, a stigma developed surrounding this community, further marginalizing these individuals. This derisive stigma is portrayed in the cartoon below.
To give you some background, HIV affects 36.7 million people worldwide and 30% of individuals affected are unaware of their HIV status. The following is a breakdown of the global distribution of individuals living with HIV.
East and Southern Africa - 19.4 million
Western and Central Africa - 6.1 million
Asia and Pacific - 5.1 million
Western and Central Europe and North America - 2.1 million
Latin America and the Caribbean - 2.1 million
East Europe and Central Asia - 1.6 million
Middle East and North Africa - 230,000
The following cultural products illustrate the stigma faced by PLHIV during the 1980s AIDS epidemic. This stigma has carried on into the present day, continuing to negatively impact PLHIV's ability to receive equitable health care and governmental aid. This phenomenon is the subject of the following article: HIV Stigma and Discrimination.
There is a sociological perspective present in this political cartoon, which was published in 1989. In this cartoon, the tortoise whose shell reads "too little too late" is climbing the mountain of wooden caskets of the deceased victims of the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Sociologically, this cartoon emphasizes the government's slow and insufficient response to the disease that rapidly claimed the lives of gay and bisexual, and black and Hispanic men (CDC). Transgender women were also heavily affected by the disease. As a result, a stigma developed surrounding this community, further marginalizing these individuals. This derisive stigma is portrayed in the cartoon below.
The sociological perspective of the stigma surrounding AIDS in the 1980s is portrayed in this cartoon; published in 1988. The woman in the cartoon has fainted from shock as a result of receiving a pamphlet on AIDS from the surgeon general in the mail.
The following cultural products illustrate the impact of food and housing insecurity on PLHIV.
This cartoon alludes to the structural barriers that perpetuate the food insecurity faced by many people living in the U.S. including PLHIV. The cartoon sends a bold message by making the barcode the wall that separates the family depicted from food. Notice, the food isn't just any kind. It is healthy foods such as fresh produce that PLHIV lack access to. The study titled "Food Insecurity, Chronic Illness, and Gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area: An Example of Structural Violence in United States Public Policy" found that a common cause of the food insecurity faced by a group of low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area was the combination of high rent payments (resulting from gentrification) and insufficient disability income. Authors of the study attribute these conditions to the implementation of urban policies conducive to gentrification and antiquated disability policies that hinder individuals’ means of subsistence.
The above video titled "Rising food prices hit Africa's HIV infected" discusses the experience of Mary Elma, a woman living in Nairobi, Kenya living with HIV who faces food insecurity. She has just had her seventh child and has no food in her home with which to feed them. As a result, she also does not have any food with which to take her daily anti-retroviral drugs, making them less effective and sometimes causing her to faint. The food insecurity that Mary experiences is widespread across Kenya due to rising food and fuel prices and sociologically, is a structural problem making it harder for people to fight HIV. This is because without food, the immune system weakens. Some efforts are being made to address this structural problem such as the organization mentioned in the video that that provides one meal a day to orphans including those with HIV. However, structurally more needs to be done to combat this institutional problem.
The above video called "Tenderloin Health" is about the non-profit organization in the San Francisco Tenderloin which provides HIV services to its community including HIV interventions and testing. The interviews in this video allude to the structural problem of food and housing insecurity faced by PLHIV in the Tenderloin. Some of the individuals in the video live in hotel rooms because they are inexpensive, however they often lack adequate cooking facilities. The organization, Tenderloin Health, works to place homeless individuals in apartments which is important because studies suggest that decreased housing security negatively impacts food security (Food Insecurity, Chronic Illness, and Gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area).
As you can see through these cultural products, food and housing insecurity is a problem faced by PLHIV globally. These cultural products point to the structural problems faced by PLHIV, exhibiting that measures must be taken in order to combat food and housing insecurity amongst this population.
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