Women, AIDS & Activism

by The ACT UP/NY Women & AIDS Book Group

With informative discussion of safer sex and sexuality, HIV testing, treatment, public policy, and activism. A thorough analysis of AIDS issues for women. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0921284454
• ISBN13: 9780921284451
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Between the Lines(CA)
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Excellent, though Dated

The book does an excellent job of discussing the women whose high risk behaviors, not identities, are thought to spread HIV to some. The authors are racially diverse and there is a blend of professional writers and everyday contributors. I've seen many anthologies discuss straight women and lesbians, or bisexual women and lesbians, but this is the first book that I've seen with chapters devoted to straight women, bisexuals, and lesbians. Many lament the absence of racial and class-based matters in most women's studies text. However, when these writers say that AIDS activism needs to be culturally sensitive, multilingual, and designed for women of limited funds, it tries to address multiple identities, not just biological sex. Although the book is edited by ACT-UP, it doesn't not have the radical style of a Larry Kramer or Michael Signorile. The chapters are professionally edited and full of scientific references. This book is a solid example of women's studies, not a loud manifesto that many apprehensive readers may fear. I do think the title is misleading as "activism" does not come close to consisting of one-third of this text. This book may feel incredibly dated. To begin, ACT-UP hasn't been in the spotlight in the way it had been in the late 1980s. This work was published when AZT was the only medicine for AIDS; the new and more effective HAART regimen was not released yet. The authors continually lament that not enough research on women and HIV has been done, but I imagine now that it has, especially as HIV has risen so sharply in developing countries. I enjoyed this book a lot. It was fact-filled but not impenetrable. Those concerned about American women and HIV may wanted to read it, despite its dated nature.