ABSTRACT
Although the story of the early years of the epidemic has been told many times, it is important to recount it here because initial reports of the new syndrome not only set the terms for subsequent policy and planning, but also gendered as male the normative body affected by the syndrome, persistently constituting women as exceptions. It would be tempting to describe the first years as a time of great confusion and alarm, which would be rationalized and organized once the actual cause of AIDS was discovered. But the connotative meanings of those at risk for AIDS and the terms for researching and managing the epidemic were in place before scientists determined that a fragile virus (and still poorly understood co-factors), and not the lifestyle or behaviors of deviant individuals, was the cause of AIDS.
