Invisible Woman: Herbert Ross' Boys on the Side Puts HIV/AIDS and Women in their Place

Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first identified HIV/AIDS and added it to its lexicon of pandemic diseases in 1981 (Weitz 102), the representation of the disease in popular culture, particularly in mainstream visual media, has been surprisingly slow to catch up. In a technological world of instant imaging, where today's news is tomorrow's TV movie of the week, this paucity of representation is astonishing. No doubt its early profile as the "gay man's disease" and the ensuing backlash from political and religious conservatives did not help transform this pressing health issue into mainstream info-entertainment.