ABSTRACT
Feminist criticism on sentimentality needs to address the legacy of coding sentimentality as white and middle class as well as the consequences of using a discourse which literally renders many women invisible. In terms of woman and Aids, white and middle-class sentimentality interferes with women's understandings of their own risk for HIV infection. The demand for a multicultural feminist approach to the discourses on AIDS is particularly important because while race, class, gender, and sexual identities and AIDS are inextricably linked in the politics and experiences of people with the disease, many examples of AIDS discourse separate the two. Sentimentalized constructions of AIDS are especially prone to this "separation" abuse. Boys on the Side rely heavily on a watered-down, nostalgic notion of universal feminist solidarity to address the enormously painful issue of women and AIDS and to present a hopeful, humane vision of care-taking.
