Monday, April 13, 1998
UCLA psychologists profile women of HIV
DOCUMENTARY: Doctors hope awareness curbs rising female death
rates
By Kathryn Combs
Daily Bruin Staff
A 25-year-old Vietnamese mother of two, a 53-year-old Caucasian
woman, a 25-year-old Latina mother of one and an African-American
mother of six in her 40s. What could these four women possibly have
in common? They all live with HIV.
The stories of Jennifer, Christine, Martha and Charlon were part
of a documentary film titled "Women and HIV: Four Stories," a film
that explores the various ways women deal with HIV and AIDS.
Conceived by UCLA psychologists Julie Axelrod and Dorothy Chin,
this film is a result of the growing concern among physicians over
the drastic rise of HIV cases in women.
Since 1991, the number of AIDS cases reported in women across
the United States has risen 72 percent, and some 3,000 women in Los
Angeles now have the disease. This makes AIDS the third leading
cause of death among American women ages 25-44.
During the film’s screening, both Axelrod and Chin stressed the
persistence of the idea that HIV and AIDS are diseases associated
with homosexual males. The four women portrayed in "Women and HIV"
are from different ethnic and age groups, and each of them are
infected.
"Women don’t have the same kind of community that men have,"
Axelrod said.
"Women with HIV and AIDS are still very isolated and are looking
for a way to feel accepted," she added.
"By choosing the diverse women that we did, by having younger
and older women, and women of different ethnicities, we wanted to
make sure that our female audience could find some piece of
themselves in one of those women," she continued.
Among the issues facing women with HIV or AIDS are the lack of
media role models and the continuing work of being mothers, wives,
care-givers and lovers.
Of the four women interviewed throughout the film, three are
mothers and two are in married relationships.
One of them, Martha, said, "I didn’t want to bring a child with
AIDS into this world."
The 25-year-old Latina mother of two didn’t find out she was HIV
positive until after she became married and pregnant with her first
child.
"When we got this, it shattered all our dreams," she added.
"I wanted to tell my story and share with others to help the
Latino community," Martha said.
Martha, only able to speak Spanish, also said she wanted to
educate her community so that no more children suffered, sharing
with the audience that she had recently suffered the loss of
someone to this disease: a friend’s 3-year-old child.
As a result of their condition, however, many of these women
have chosen to promote community awareness. Christine is a
volunteer and lobbyist with AIDS Project Los Angeles. She helps
people with the disease claim their social security benefits and
find housing, so they can "die in dignity," she said in the
film.
"Death is really real, and I’m going to prepare for it the best
way I know, through my god and through my actions on this earth,
knowing I have done the right thing," Christine said in the
film.
"At first it used to scare me a lot but now it doesn’t scare me.
I’m more at peace with it," she said.
Christine, a 53-year-old white woman, has not only had to deal
with AIDS but is a cancer survivor as well.
A former drug and alcohol user, she has now been clean and sober
for six years.
Unique to her story is that she was diagnosed with full-blown
AIDS in November 1989, the most severe form of the disease.
"It is my job as an educator to educate people," Christine
said.
"If you don’t stand for something your life is meaningless …
it takes courage to admit you have this virus," she added.
In the face of rising numbers of women becoming infected with
HIV and AIDS, awareness is becoming increasingly more crucial.
Often, as Chin says, "females are at risk but are the last to
notice."Photos by DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin
Martha (left) and Charlon are two of the four women profiled in
"Women & HIV: Four Stories."
DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin
Dorothy Chin (left) and Julie Axlerod pose for pictures after
the screening of their documentary.