The representations of HIV/AIDS in Danish AIDS campaigns 1983-1996
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v35i1.138224Keywords:
hiv/aids, sexuality, LGBT, visual analysis, metaphors, campaignsAbstract
The representations of HIV/AIDS in Danish AIDS campaigns 1983-1996. In this article we have investigated the representation of HIV/AIDS in Danish campaign material from 1983-1996. We have collected and digitized approximate 130 pieces of campaign materials, published by approximately 30 different organizations, administrative authorities, and municipalities in the period from 1983-2000. Using a cultural studies inspired strategy of analysis, we investigate how HIV/AIDS is visually, metaphorically and rhetorically signified in the material. Our analysis show that a specific homosexual aesthetic is formed by using a camp visual style of homoeroticism and homo-iconography. We argue that the campaigns not only work through reason but also by making intimate relations, identity, and desire to its object and strategy. Secondly, as the material rarely visualizes a body living with HIV or AIDS, our analysis shows, that HIV/AIDS are metaphorically and visually represented in the material as the catastrophe, that is hidden, and the biblical fall. Thus, we conclude that a visual and metaphorical chain of equivalencies that links HIV/AIDS with homosexuality, the sin, and the catastrophe, is present in the Danish HIV/AIDS campaigns.
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