December One demands my attention every year. World AIDS Day began in 1988…twenty years and where are we? The statistics do not seem to impress the public any longer. Even though women are the growing group with HIV, they have no advocacy groups like those for breast cancer. Because they are women of color?
- Share
November 9th, 2009 at 10:34 am #
Not only are they predominantly women of color but they also are predominantly in developing countries and are predominantly poor.
Men disregard or overlook women. (Not necessarily on purpose, it can be because of socialization, it can be because they “forget” to step out of old familiar grooves of thinking long enough to look around and wonder where all the women are. But it happens.) White people overlook people of color. (Ditto to the last parenthical statement, but substituting “people of color” for women.) People in industrialized countries overlook people in developing countries. Middle class and wealthy people overlook people who are poor. That’s four layers of “invisiblility.” Which probably helps to explain why women, especially poor women of color in developing countries, are at such high risk to start with: they are in less of a position, for example, to negotiate condom usage with their male partners, and less likely to be educated on why a condom helps in the first place. And all that is without mentioning other forms of “invisibility” such as women with disabilities, or women who live in remote or rural locations.