I read Disclosure by Michael Crichton at a pretty young age (it is beyond me how my parents let a 10 year old read that), and it made me familiar with the connotations men deal with when discussing rape or sexual coercion. Quick overview: male character either has sexual relations with his female boss or risks losing his job. When he does reveal that he is being sexually harassed, his female boss counters by suggesting that he assaulted her. The book showed popular perception because the male was at risk for his job while everyone sided with the female.

The book touched on parts of what “The Effects of Rape on Men” discussed more deeply. The main flaw in my thinking was after reading Crichton’s book; I never really factored homosexual rape- the more prominent one. Walken’s et al. article definitely gave me more insight to the effects of rape on men.

The initial survey was shocking; estimating that rate of sexual assault amongst gay and bisexual men was 27.6%. Additionally, previous studies showed that current or ex-partners committed 65% of the sexual assaults. I extrapolated the data and took it to mean that 1/5 gay or bisexual men will be raped by someone they previously dated. These numbers are ridiculously high, but gay and bisexual men are at a higher risk because of homophobic sexual assaults as a means of emasculation.

There are a lot of parallels reading between sexual assault among men and women. I learned that men experience a lot of the same emotional and physical anguish that females go through. For instance, men feel very vulnerable after the rape, overcompensating for their safety. This can lead to a change in life style when a person becomes obsessed and paranoid about their safety. Men who have been sexually assaulted also blame themselves for the incident or feel embarrassed which can hinder the emotional recovery process.

                    As  Eunice Owiny explains, “The man has been raped, the woman has been                       raped. Disclosure is easy for the woman. She gets the medical treatment, she                     gets the attention, she’s supported by so many organisations. But the man is                       inside, dying.” (Will Storr, 2011)

It seems like there is a double standard when it comes to rape. People are not completely understanding of a male being raped. Owiny, a male rape victim described his predicament as “Everybody has heard the women’s stories. But nobody has heard the men’s”. In East Africa, rape can be used as a political tool (I originally thought that rape was used as a political tool against females in my previous blogs) used as a means of power. There are some horrific stories in which male captives would be raped 11 times a day, and wouldn’t say a word about it after release for fear of being thought as vulnerable and weak. They would lose family support because the wife assumes if the man can’t protect himself, how is he supposed to protect her? The brother will say, “Now, my brother is not a man”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men

Ending Sexual Assault on Campus

Talks with S

11/16/2012

The discussion that I wish to delve in today’s blog is something that although I do not have first hand experience on, is nevertheless very close to my heart. Anything I comment hereafter is my personal opinion, and I do not intend to hurt or disrespect anyone’s feelings.

The Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault, in About Sexual Assault, states, “Sexual assault is any sexual activity that is against another person’s will including: rape (attempted rape), sodomy/aggravated sodomy, child molestation, fondling, sexual harassment, indecent exposure, stalking, peeping toms, sexual battery.” This issue of sexual assault or sexual violence is a serious campus and public health issue (ACHA Guidelines 5). The ACHA in Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence talks about how student’s academic success and health can be impacted, and how victimized students can feel disempowered and alienated, if college campuses are unable to provide an atmosphere where students can feel safe (5).

When I came to the U.S from India to attend college, I was unfortunately very well versed with the notion of rape. Every morning when I would open the newspapers in India, there were at least a few articles on how girls were raped in the city the day or night before. My hometown- Delhi, the national capital of India, is known to be an unsafe city for women. Often students from other cities of India studying at Emory joke, “you come from the city of rape”, when I mention which city I am from. Since this was reality, and nothing concrete was being done about it, women all over Delhi took personal precautions to safeguard themselves. We all lived life as normal as any other individual in any other city, however, additionally took certain steps to ensure our safety. This included girls returning to their homes before it got too dark, girls wearing clothing that was considered “appropriate” and not something that would expose too much skin, and also never to take public transport alone, etc. The government’s take on such issues was that girls should follow the above steps, as they should “respect” themselves and avoid situations to tempt men. Women were victimized and it was taken for granted that “men will be men,” and thus we as women took the appropriate steps to take care of ourselves. Therefore, prevention never included the involvement of men back home. Traditionally, even in the U.S, men were never included in the efforts to combat the problems of sexual assault. The ACHA Guidelines encourage the involvement of men in every step to combat the issue of sexual assault. “Most guys don’t commit rape, but every guy can play a role in ending sexual and dating violence” (ACHA Guidelines 14). It encourages men to define their own “manhood” and thereby build a strong character that respects women. This guideline also encourages men to “speak up” and not let their peers joke about rape. It is believed that this can change male’s perception of social norms of “masculinity”, as “men [are said to] have powerful influences on male peers” (ACHA Guidelines 14 & 16).

There is a traditional myth that women are mostly raped by strangers or unknown individuals. The ACHA in Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence, states, “friends and acquaintances commit between 80[%] and 90% of the sexual assaults against women on college campuses” (16).  Thus, the involvement of not only women, but also men can have a significant impact in reduction of friend (or acquaintance) rape by encouraging both women and men to attend primary prevention education sessions. These education programs aim to “prevent first-time perpetration or victimization by improving knowledge and attitudes that correspond to the origins of sexual violence (such as adherence to social norms, male superiority, male sexual entitlement), build skills for respectful interactions, and empower participants to become agents of change (ACHA Guidelines 7 & 8).

Although when back home in India, I had heard of women and children getting raped, I had never heard of men getting raped. When I came to Emory, my perception of rape and sexual assault (and all the notions surrounding it) gradually changed. The mandatory PE 101 Health class that I had to take as a freshman, and then joining SAPA- Sexual Assault Peer Advocates, to support it’s founder and president Anushka Kapoor, were instrumental in the inclusion of the ideology that “men also get raped.” Ms. Kapoor in her interview with Her Campus Emory, states, “National statistics tell us that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 33 men are sexually assaulted by the end of their college careers.” Other statistics state,“10-20 percent of all males will be sexually violated at some point in their lifetimes” (MSCASA). The question then that came to my mind was that why did I never hear of a male getting assaulted in India, and why have I heard of extremely rare cases of males getting assaulted in the U.S as well? According to Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault,

“They [male victims of sexual assault] fear being ignored, laughed at, disbelieved, shamed, accused of weakness, or questioned about being gay. Perhaps worst of all, men fear being blamed for the assault because they were not “man enough” to protect themselves in the face of an attack. For all these reasons, many male survivors remain silent and alone rather than risk further violation by those around them.”

 I then begin to wonder why this extremely comprehensive and useful guide by the American College Health Association is written only from the point of view of a “heterosexual” sexual assault scenario -a male assaulting a female- in college. What about males assaulting other males, females assaulting males, and females assaulting other females? Guidelines need to be specifically designed to include different actions that can be taken for different scenarios.

At the end of the day, any kind of sexual activity- involving any individual of any sexual identity, gender or sexual orientation- requires “consent” and at every level of sexual intimacy. Consent is a “voluntary, sober, enthusiastic, creative, wanted, informed, mutual, honest, and verbal agreement. Consent is an active agreement; Consent cannot be coerced” (ACHA Guidelines 15).  This consent needs to be “acquired” from one’s sexual partner before every sexual action, even if the sexual act has been performed before. In addition, this “approval” needs to be attained without incapacitation of alcohol or other drugs, pressure, force, threat or intimidation, and an “implied yes” is not acceptable (ACHA Guidelines 5 & 15). The ACHA in Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence, states, “Approximately 50-70% of all sexual assaults involve alcohol” (19). Friends (or acquaintances) and “assaulters” blame the act of sexual assault on alcohol. While friends may blame the victim as “having asked for it”, offenders use it as a justification. This has lead to the occurrence of the “unwanted”, “pressured” and “regretted” type of sexual activities to exist on campus (ACHA Guidelines 19). To avoid such unintended scenarios, the domains of influence of potential victims, perpetrators and bystanders should be included in sexual violence prevention activities (ACHA Guidelines 5).

The ACHA Guideline is an essential tool kit that should be a required reading material for every entering freshman at college. This guideline talks about several recommended actions that can be taken by the faculty, staff, administrators, and students in the creation of a safe campus culture (ACHA Guidelines 5). It also talks about bystanders who act as catalysts to address, prevent and intervene in the fight to end sexual violence on college campuses. The Emory Student Health Department officials, Ms. Lauren Bernstein (Coordinator of Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention Education and Response at Emory), SAPA trained peer advocates, and ASAP students, provide useful on- campus support  services to victims and friends or acquaintances of victims. These resources should be availed if needed. Spread the word.

Citations:

American College Health Association (ACHA Guidelines). “Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence”

Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault (GNESA). “About Sexual Assault”http://gnesa.org/about-sexual-assault

Her Campus Emory. “Anushka Kapoor’13 SAPA President” 14^th November 2012. http://www.hercampus.com/school/emory/anushka-kapoor-13-sapa-president

Mississippi Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MSCASA) “Male Sexual Assault” http://www.mscasa.org/what-we-do/male-sexual-assault/

Student Health Emory. “Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention”  http://studenthealth.emory.edu/hp/get_involved/asap.html

Student Health Emory. “Sexual Assault Peer Advocates” http://studenthealth.emory.edu/hp/get_involved/sapa.html

In Effects of Rape on Men: A Descriptive Analysis by Walker et al., the authors discuss a study they performed to look into the lives of men who have been sexually assaulted. The results were not surprising to me. On the first page, which the page number could not be seen clearly, states “the help and support for male victims of rape is more than 20 years behind that of a female victims.” Seeing that there is really nothing in the media for males that have been raped, nor a lot of research, the everyday crimes of male rape still goes on. On this same page it says “gay and bisexual men are more likely to report sexual assault by other men than heterosexual men.” It goes on to explain two reasons behind this:they are at risk of being raped by dates or while in relationships with men, and th occurrence of sexual assault. This is supported where the article says that ex sexual partner had to do with 65% of assaults in the study o gay and bisexual men. The other reason was homophobic sexual assault, essentially hate crimes against homosexual men.

The article goes on to say on the same first page that “very few male rape victims report their assault to the police because they think that thy will experience negative treatment, be disbelieved, or blamed for their assault.” These types of feelings are actually very similar to women’s experiences of rape. The fear of negative reactions also prevents men from looking towards medical treatment. This, in turn, could lead to victims not knowing if they contracted an STD from the traumatic event. Those that did go to the hospital had much more severe injuries than women usually do. This can be explained in the way that men do not go to the hospital after their assaults unless they are severely injured.

On page 496, it starts to explain the emotions of men after the incident. “Male victims reported significantly more hostility, anger, and depression than females did.” The article explained that this is because “anger is a more ‘masculine’ way to deal with trauma.”

This can go back to the Vulnerability Paradigm discussed in Rethinking Gender, Heterosexual Men, and Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS by Higgins et al. The article discussed how women can have reduced agency making them more vulnerable to diseases contracted from sexual intercourse. Men can be put in their own vulnerability paradigm when it comes to sexual assault. Their need to maintain their masculinity can in turn put them in danger of not being tested for sexually transmitted disease after the trauma of a rape. Also, in many situations, one could say that some homosexual men lose their agency in the homophobic person’s perspective. This can make them more vulnerable to sexual assault.

On page 500, victims discuss what they believe male victims of rape need in order to make steps to ending this type of trauma. They suggest eliminate homophobia within professional services, police specially trained for male rape victims, support groups in major towns, 24 hour help lines, and more easily available therapy services. We need to take heed to these requests and start to make a better, safer world, for those men affected and could be affected by sexual assault. On our own campus we have “Take Back the Night,” I do not believe we have anything that highlights the plight of male victims. For our own campus, I believe that would be a great step in the right direction.

According to the ACHA (American College Health Association), 50-70% of all sexual assaults in college campuses involve alcohol. In today’s society, sex and alcohol are frequently linked. There is a stereotype that men drink to feel more powerful, sexual, and aggressive. This stereotype also believes that these men go out on a Friday night, and expect sex by the end of the night. This expectation can lead to misinterpreting a woman’s signals (nonverbal cues) to fit their expectations.

I can’t help but notice there is a double standard when it comes to alcohol consumption. Abbey states in Perception of Sexual Intent: The Role of Gender, Alcohol Consumption, and Rape Supportive Attitudes, “Traditional stereotypes convey a double standard regarding alcohol consumption: drinking men tend to be viewed more positively than drinking women. Women who drink alcohol are often perceived as being sexually promiscuous.” (Abbey 2) This stereotype can lead a man to think that a woman under the influence is more likely to respond (sexually) to his advances than a sober woman. Alcohol consumption leads to impaired judgment. Based on this statement, are women that were under the influence when raped somewhat (partially) responsible for what happened? This question has been used by lawyers time and time again to cast doubt on rape victims’ claims. In my opinion, regardless of involvement of alcohol, the full responsibility falls upon the rapist.

In Rana Sampson’s Acquaintance Rape of College Students she states, “Women ages 16 to 24 experience rape at four times higher than the assault rate of all women”. That would make the high school and college years the most vulnerable to women. Sampson also mentioned how college women are more prone to rape/sexual violence than women at the same age that are not enrolled in college. One in Four college women report surviving rape (15 percent) or attempted rape (12 percent) since their fourteenth birthday. The incidence of rape recording may be under representative of the actual number of rapes that occur. There are many factors that contribute to under-reporting. There might be different social costs for reporting rape at various universities, making comparisons between schools difficult. For example, Georgia State’s student body consists 22,587 undergraduates, while Emory only has around 5,500 undergraduates. When only referring to the students that “go out”, the 5,500 gets even smaller. With a small group of students such as this, there is a social cost that comes with a woman reporting a sexual assault. For instance, rumors about that woman can spread rapidly around campus, leaving people in her social bubble to judge and label her.

Abbey, A. “Perception of Sexual Intent: The Role of Gender, Alcohol Consumption, and Rape Supportive Attitudes.” Springer Netherlands, 05 Apr. 2002. Web.

Sampson, Rana. “Acquaintance Rape of College Students.” University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 01 Aug. 2003. Web.

Warsaw, R. I Never Called it Rape. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

Have you ever heard of Lauren Bernstein? You will Tuesday. She’s the person to know if you’ve been a victim of sexual violence. She came to Emory last year and now she’s a coordinator for the Respect Program, advisor for Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) and Sexual Assault Peer Advocates (SAPA), and on the Center for Women Advisory Board. She’s bringing awareness to Emory about sexual violence on campus, helping victims, and trying to prevent any further instances. With her help and the programs we have on campus, sexual violence is being brought to the forefront of Emory’s attention.

Before this year, even before this class, I hadn’t even heard of any reports of sexual violence on campus. But as on any campus, there is sexual violence prevalent. In the Emory Wheel, Ariana Skibell writes “Seven rapes reported since August… Three took place in Clairmont Hall, two in fraternity houses on Eagle Row and one in Harris Hall…” When this is mentioned around campus, the attitudes surrounding it are surprisingly negative. I’ve heard “Oh, she probably got too drunk… she was asking for it.” Never, is this the case. Alcohol is not an excuse for rape. “Rape does not happen just because one individual chooses to rape another. Rape happens because there are attitudes and norms that allow it to happen (Guy 10). Society has accepted what is known as “rape culture” – rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm (Guy 10). It is sad to realize that our culture has accepted rape culture. Women are afraid to report rapes, people are timid to acknowledge that rape happens, rapists are condoned for their actions.

“Approximately 50-70% of sexual assaults involve alcohol” (Guy 19). Inebriated people, especially college students more likely to binge drink, lose their inhibitions. People do things they would normally never do – some can get aggressive while others some can become submissive and act as an easy target. When I attended Take Back the Night last Monday, Emory students told their personal stories of sexual violence attacks against them, many involving alcohol. Many females who reported they had been raped said they never had said no and that they were too drunk to do anything about it.  “In order to change individual campus norms, it is necessary to understand the context and reasons (the how, when, and why) that students use alcohol and the connection to sexual violence” (Guy 19).

Emory’s 8th annual Take Back the Night took place Monday November 12th. It was a supportive collaboration of ASAP, SAPA, the Respect Program, and Emory students that raised awareness of sexual violence on campus by reporting statistics, reading about sexual violence, and telling anonymous and personal stories submitted by Emory students. These are the kind of events that should set off alarms in every students head. Sexual violence happens, and it can happen to anyone. No one is immune. As people told their stories of what had happened to them, I found myself even tearing up. The emotional aftereffects of sexual violence is overwhelming, omnipresent, hard to acknowledge, difficult to overcome, painful, and more. Events like Take Back the Night engage campus communities across the globe. They try to transform the norms of rape culture and prevent further sexual violence. What we can do is bring awareness amongst more members of the Emory community. Let’s prevent sexual violence.

Seven Rapes Reported Since Aug.

Guy, Lydia; Lee, David; Perry, Brad. “Shifting the Paradigm: Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence.” American College Health Association. August 2008.

Homosexual men were the majority group diagnosed with AIDS a couple decades ago when the disease was first identified. This sexually transmitted disease was passed onto women over time and the latest statistics show that women account for 51% of the HIV epidemic in the US according to the CDC. For a predominantly male disease, there is clearly some reason why the number of infected women has increased exponentially in the past 3 decades.

Higgins suggests a model that women are more susceptible to HIV because of “biological differences in susceptibility, reduced sexual autonomy, and men’s sexual power and privilege”. I completely agree with these reasons, but disagree when she went further to suggest the model believes that men just don’t participate in prevention. It was at this point that I was a little skeptical of what I had gotten myself into reading, however Higgins explains the flaws in this model. She makes it clear that men aren’t the only ones responsible, there had to be some way heterosexual men contracted HIV.

Yet this got me thinking. Why would someone suggest that men aren’t interested in prevention? Although transmission rates are significantly lower in men that doesn’t mean men will never get HIV. This is something that affects your life, and I can’t imagine a reason why knowledgeable men would actively not be interested in prevention.

Reading in one of my other classes that HPV vaccines are available for women as well as men changed my perspective on men not taking responsibility. It allowed me to parallel between men and HPV and men and HIV- although I understand that HPV can be actively prevented while HIV cannot.  I felt a little ignorant realizing that men can be a huge factor in prevention and it caused me to look at the HIV/AIDS epidemic a little differently. Higgins article hinted that men don’t take any responsibility, and I initially had trouble understanding that for HIV, but a disease like HPV makes me understand.

It is obvious that men can prevent certain strains of HPV from being transmitted through vaccine, yet I feel that the public has not been made aware. Similarly, I think this situation arises with HIV as well. HPV has a minimal effect on men, and I think some people may think that HIV has a minimal effect on men (when you consider the higher rate of transmission women have). I think men can alter the current transmission rates of HIV through condom use, abstinence, or monogamous relationships but the first step is to make sure you target both sexes through education. You can’t eradicate a disease by just focusing on one sex.

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/index.htm

An article about a sex survey in the Emory Wheel (January 30,1979) was quite interesting in several ways and made me engage in some critical thinking. The ‘informal consensus’ on 165 students (80 females and 85 males) of Psychology 214 class compiled by Dr. David Edwards of the psychology department had some interesting statistics.

First interesting point was the difference between responses of male and female students in their frequencies of sexual intercourse. Forty-three percent of the females answered that they were having sexual intercourse several times per week, whereas only 14 percent of the males were having sex with such frequency. After reading this, I could not refrain from asking, who were the females having sex with?

If we assume that most of the students with active sex life were engaging in sexual intercourse that involves 1 woman and 1 man (because the article also mentions that 99 percent of both females and males considered themselves as heterosexual, and only 5 percent and 11 percent of females and males, respectively, had tried same-sex relations at least once in their lifetime), this can be interpreted in many ways.

It can mean that the small number of male students were having multiple partners when female students were being ‘loyal’ to their only partners. It may sound somewhat humiliating to the old Emory alumni who were in that class, but the difference in frequency reminded me of the statistics from primate social psychology class I took last semester. In macaques and capuchin monkeys’ societies, so called, alpha males and the ones very close to him mates with all of the females in the group, that shows similar statistics to that of the psychology class.

However, since the survey asked only a specific group of students, many other possibilities exist. The male students in the psychology class may had not been much sexually attractive, and the females could had been having sex with males in other classes or even the ones outside the campus. The male students themselves could had not been interested much in sexual intercourse, if we consider the 94 percent male masturbation rate (in contrast to 47 percent in females) that suggests that males were perhaps satisfied with fulfilling their sexual desires alone.

We should also note that the big difference (47% female vs 14% male) is from the response to “having sexual intercourse several times per week”. This could also mean the opposite of my first suspicion. Most male students could had been having sex once or twice per week (which is less than ‘several times’) with single partner and female students could possibly be having multiple partners.

The fact that women were having sexual intercourse more frequently just looked too contrasting to what I expected to find, probably because of the sexual stereotype I have that women, especially in times like 1979, should be more conservative than their concurrent males or present women.

Another aspect that surprised me was the openness of the article. Although 1979 can be seen as quite recent, this is the first article that I found in the archive that openly wrote about sexual research or surveys with questions about oral sex, masturbation, and same sex relations. About a month ago, I found and wrote about an article from the Emory Report, February 8th, 1934, tilted “Fair Sex Analyzed In Experiment at Tufts”, but that was merely a joke about female stereotypes. Since this time, the facts and numbers about the students’ sexual lives are discussed in the official university news paper, I believe there had been much changes between 1934 and 1979. I am also happy that I should be able to find more articles about sexual identity in later Emory Wheel.

Emory Wheel Sex Survey 1979

Emory Report 1934

It is likely that the early 70s was a confusing time for those interested in abortion. Last time I mentioned in my blog that, with the 1973 court case Roe v. Wade setting the political forecast, abortion was likely at the forefront of discussion topics. In this fashion, abortion was probably a touchy subject. Not for the usual reason of being something that is not accepted widely, but instead maybe because the sudden rise in advertisements for abortion could have made it awkward. I mean, to go from something not spoken about to something you can’t get away from…there has to be some element of societal shock there somewhere.

Is it possible that this sudden influx of pro-abortion advertisement lead to a societal oversaturation of all things abortion? This week in a 1973 Emory Wheel, there was an abundance of abortion ads and blurbs. In fact, on one page in particular, there were four abortion ads, three of which were nestled right by one another. This time period was different from today in many ways. For one, abortion was just on the rise to social and public acceptance. Abortion was still a young idea and something fresh on the political picnic table. In addition, abortion was publicly and heavily advertised. Although the only evidence of these assumptions are the numerous Emory Wheel ads, the fact that a college publication was speaking so loosely about something as serious as abortion is strong enough to stand alone.

As if these ads broadcasting statements like “Pregnancy Isn’t Always Beautiful,” aren’t enough to raise an eyebrow, adding to the confusion are the sexualized ads in the Emory Wheel. A full spread was dedicated to the Derby Day festivities. Said to be a philanthropic event for an on-campus fraternity, this event was seen as a “rite of passage” for many women. “Derbie Day is a lot like that airline commercial where a sexy stewardess says ‘I’m Debbie, fly me’…Officially what Derby Day is about is spirit, but if you want to get a real message, think about Debbie.” Seeing as though this advertisement was in the same publication as the plethora of abortion ads, it is safe to say that sex was prevalent, and not far behind was a semblance of a celebration of abortion. Readers of the Wheel were likely old enough to be beyond the birds and the bees conversation so the editors had to be aware of the fact that they were publicizing the action that lead to the need for abortions…and viewers could see this. All this is to say that it is interesting to observe, in this era of the 70s,  how publicly accepted abortion was and at the same time how prevalent sex was just like it is in current times.

Today, abortion has receded into the shell of societal distress and politics. It has returned to a state that seemingly mimics what the conditions may have been like before abortion was completely legal and advertised in college newspapers. Yet sex continues to sell. So what has changed? What has happened that has forced the conversation of abortion into the shadows while keeping sex at the tip of society’s tongue? Even more concerning, is the question of what we do now that people four decades down the line will look at and tilt their heads to the side.

Note Nov 15, 2012

Note Nov 15, 2012 (1)

Note Nov 15, 2012 (3)

Note Nov 15, 2012 (4)

In the Peter Lewis Allen article that we read entitled AIDS in the USA, there was a section called “Mistakes Were Made.” The section title foreshadows a section primarily dealing with the failures of the United States in relation to the AIDS epidemic. Allen points out that there have been several AIDS successes in countries with fewer resources economically and medically compared to the United States. Despite America’s failure to hamper the spread of AIDS in the United States, he does acknowledge that the disease spread swiftly and quietly for quite some time until it became detected. One Allen’s staggering statistics claimed that the time AIDS was being reported in the United States, thirty percent of the gay men in San Francisco were infected. This was in part due to the lack of focus on disease prevention. Rather American focus is on the treatment, not the cure. Being a part of a capitalist society opens the floodgates for such instances to allow vulnerabilities like this.

Allen also ties back in to a previous section dealing with religion, and how religious communities reacted to the outbreak of AIDS on American soil. He noted that in 1986, for example, there became a movement from the Presbyterian Church in the United States stating that AIDS was not a punishment for immoral behavior. This particular part of the section seems particularly interesting because Allen obviously felt the need the point out that this was a movement from the Presbyterian Church in the United States, not the Presbyterian Church as a whole. This begs the question of whether he was trying to maintain scope within the article or whether there were differing views with in different regions of the Presbyterian sect. This notion perpetuates considering Allen’s next sentence about the Methodist bishops releasing similar statements about AIDS not being a curse from God. In this part, Allen does not limit to the bishops within the United States.

In another portion of the section, Allen reflects back on the public figures of the time and their lack of contributions. The most notable national figure pointed out was President Bill Clinton. During his time in office, Clinton fired former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders over an AIDS prevention issue. Subsequently after the firing of Elders, Clinton’s serious mistake occurred through his appointed AIDS czars, whom proved to be weak and ineffective. Essentially, the conclusion seemed to be that AIDS prevention, especially in regards to intravenous drug users, stagnated between the years of 1981 through Clinton’s term in office. Interestingly enough though, this message would seem contradictory compared to the Clinton Foundation. According to the website, Clinton aided building a healthcare system to help repress the spread of HIV and AIDS. His site claims that he sought to essentially leverage his connections to help make a “measureable difference” in the areas he cared most about. Comparing these two side by side, there is an obvious difference in the picture painted about Clinton and AIDS prevention. This makes me begin to wonder if he recognized his failures in response to AIDS during his presidency.

Even though Clinton is revered as one of the greatest political talents, I guess he learned a play from Jimmy Carter on how to fail (at least in one aspect) as President but leverage that position to make a difference.

https://classes.emory.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1642096-dt-content-rid-262292_2/courses/FA12_AMST_385_DTROKA_Combined/AIDS%20in%20the%20USA.pdf

http://www.clintonfoundation.org/main/about/clinton-foundation-history.html