Dammit why is this happening to me? I mean this should nOt happen to people like me.
This desperate question from a beloved character Rose on a beloved show The Golden Girls is the defining moment in yet another landmark episode in the critically acclaimed series. The show known as much for its hilarious comedy as for fearlessly venturing into taboo TV territory was tackling its next sensitive topic AIDS.
In 72 Hours Rose receives a letter alerting her that she may have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during gallbladder surgery six years earlier and she is advised to get a test. As she waits for the results worry and a deep rooted panic take hold and a pivotal scene takes place between the delightfully dimwitted Rose and saucy Southern belle Blanche. Roses dialogue embodies several misconceptions about HIV infection pervasive at the time that people like her an older middle class, heterosexual innocent woman should nOT get such a disease that none of her friends will want to associate with her now and that she is being punished for some kind of bad behavior.
To which Blanche thoughtfully replies, AIDS is not a bad persons disease Rose. It is not God punishing people for their sins.
In 1990 when the episode first aired AIDS testing was still relatively new; just five years prior the FDA licensed the first commercial blood test. Since 1981, over 100,000 deaths from AIDS had been reported to the CDC by that year almost one third of them during 1990. It was a scary time and despite efforts to educate the public myths and misinformation ran rampant.Cue the ever tactless Sophia who reacts by using Dorothys bathroom so she woULD nOt have to share one with Rose and prominently marking her coffee cups with an R. The kind of groan-worthy moments of TV that make you want to crawl under the couch. After a verbal slap from Dorothy Sophia admits I know intellectually theres no way I can catch it but now that its so close to home its scary.
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