Female AIDS victims ignored, author says

When AIDS emerged in the early 1980s and the nation witnessed the decimation of the male gay community, female victims were given little thought, according to author Cindy Patton. Patton attempts to deal with this exclusion in her essay With Champagne and Roses, which she presented to about 30 people Thursday night in Houston Hall. Patton, a Temple University assistant professor, spoke about the much publicized case of Alison Gertz, whose personal story of AIDS forced America to take note that AIDS was a disease not strictly limited to the gay male community. The Ali Gertz story brought also shed the myth that AIDS was not confined to a particular social circle. After all, Gertz had few partners, and they were all considered "nice men," Patton said. In the early '80s, the Center for Disease Control -- overwhelmed by reports of men with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the virus that causes AIDS -- cited very few cases of women suffering from the HIV virus, according to Patton. In fact, she said, the CDC began analysis as a rebuttal to the splash of media accounts. Patton emphasized that the media dictates the variety of ways in which women are perceived. She said that her essay is intended to be a needs assessment on global women. Patton said that women's needs are erased by educators and policy makers who see sex as "the man's right and the woman's obligation." According to Patton, American culture's assumptions regarding sexuality automatically blame women for succumbing to an infected male. She said that women are often blamed for not avoiding "shadowy bisexuals," men who appear to be heterosexual, but in fact are bisexual. Patton did not restrict her speech to women in the United States. She contrasted the role of women in the United States to that of women in Africa.