Sarah Harding

Disease and Discrimination

January 29, 1999

Critical Analysis

Positive Women: Voices of Women Living with AIDS

Edited by Andrea Rudd and Darien Taylor

Published by Second Story Press, 1992, pp. 269

Positive Women is an activating anthology of the experiences and lives of women living with the AIDS virus. It collects personal stories and describes the fears, hopes, dreams, battles, wins and losses of nearly 40 women all across the world. The editors, Andrea Rudd and Darien Taylor gave these women the opportunity to tell their own stories in their own ways; some sent poetry, some sent journal entries, some sent photographs. All were powerful descriptions of what it is like to be a woman living with AIDS. The book is focused mainly towards a female audience and specifically towards those women whose voices may have been silenced as a result of their HIV status and are too afraid to speak out. Many of the women take the opportunity to talk to those women and give them advice and the strength to reach out and find some help. They all seem to want to assure women everywhere that they are not alone and are not terrible and immoral women for having this disease.

A unique aspect of this book is the diverse ethnicities of each of the women. Many of the women are from the US or Canada but many are also from European countries and countries in Africa and South America. Therefore, the reader not only learns about individual experiences but how these experiences are colored by the surrounding societies. Expectations of women are much different in African societies than in American cultures. For example, AIDS is not limited to any single economic status or community. Also, there are tremendous pressures on women to marry and bear children. African women are expected to remain faithful to their husbands no matter what. However, the same expectation does not exist for men; they are free to be with however many women he chooses. AIDS is not a topic of conversation either in many countries and therefore education surrounding it is very limited. This is apparent in many of the women’s stories that didn’t even know what AIDS was when they were told they had it. They only knew they were going to die.

The stories were written mainly in the late 80’s and early 90’s at a time when the stigmas and general stereotypes of AIDS still assumed AIDS was limited to homosexual men. Therefore, women everywhere, even in the US were assumed to be immune to HIV. There were no organizations for women, nor any real information of what it meant for a woman to have AIDS. Many of the women speak of an overwhelming feeling of isolation and fear surrounding the virus. Many did not tell or still have not told close friends or family members of their status, "I am still afraid of people finding out I am HIV positive, afraid of their reactions and prejudices" (130). No one felt she could reach out for any help because she did not feel there was any help to get. For this reason, though this book was published only seven years ago, the information is not entirely accurate. There are now many support groups and much more information at the fingertips of people living with AIDS, "there are newsletters for HIV positive women, articles of women’s symptoms and treatments in the treatment newsletters that come out of the medical and PLWA (People Living With AIDS) communities." (14). Still, the feelings and reactions of each woman regarding her isolation are as powerful as it would be at any time, past or present.

One aspect of this book which was somewhat lacking was the length and subsequent depth of each story. Each woman would talk about her life and how she contracted the disease but rarely would she be able to develop the smaller details of what it was like to be living with the disease. The stories sometimes seemed even simplistic as a result of the length of each account. Had some been twice as long, deeper points and individual issues and triumphs could have been pointed out. Perhaps some of the emotion of each story was lost in the translations of many, since women from all over the world sent entries. Still, a deeper look at each woman would have served to make an even more powerful book.

Despite this lack, Positive Women serves as an amazingly resourceful account of what it was like for women in the late 80’s and 90’s living with the AIDS virus. The stories are uplifting and hopeful as well as honest and straightforward. The women all gave true and candid looks at their lives. For many it was the first time they were telling anyone of their status. Each woman allows the reader to take a close look at her thoughts, fears, emotions and inner self. This in turn allows the reader to almost feel close to the speaker and inspirers the reader to look always for the greater good, no matter how bleak the situation may be.

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