ABSTRACT
Author’s Note: This article was originally written in 1987. Therefore, the history of media attention to the AIDS epidemic and portrayals of people living with AIDS is somewhat outdated. Sadly, little has changed in the past six years that would recommend a revision of my assessment of the irresponsibility of the mass media regarding AIDS. Nor during that interlude have I altered my conclusion that Bright Eyes stands out as one of the most intelligent responses to the inadequate, frequently homophobic, public representations concerning AIDS.
Female doctor: “Are some symptoms easier to see than others?”
Male doctor: “Yes, I think that they are.”
Female doctor: “Which symptoms do you think are the most easily seen?”
Male doctor: “Those that we recognize, those that are familiar to us, those that we’ve seen before.”
Female doctor: “Are they always self-evident?”
Male doctor: “Sometimes a symptom is invisible, which means that it must be aggressively hunted out. Sometimes it is visible and we do not see it”
Bright Eyes, Part One