The Philadelphia Syndrome, or an insurmountable cultural trauma
Outdated mainstream visual representations of HIV in times of undetectability
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2654233 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sergio Villanueva Baselga (0000-0003-4447-151X, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 74 |
| Pages | 146-163 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-24 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | MedieKultur Journal of media and communication research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0900-9671 • E-ISSN: 1901-9726 |
| Publisher | Det Kgl. Bibliotek/Royal Danish Library (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.7146/mk.v39i74.132466 |
| OpenAlex | W4378070412 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 17 |
In 1981, the first case of AIDS was diagnosed in the US. Almost forty years later, the biomedical situation of people living with HIV (PLWH) in Western countries has significantly improved, and today, PLWH have a normal lifespan with few physical comorbidities. Nevertheless, current media representations of HIV do not seem to have moved past the AIDS epidemic of the 1990s. The film Philadelphia, directed by Jonathan Deeme in 1993, has had a huge cultural impact in how society perceives HIV, and many contemporary films and fiction series portraying HIV still represent the condition in the same narrative terms. This analysis sets out to define what could be referred to as the Philadelphia Syndrome, a concept intended to describe the outdated, nostalgic representations of HIV in mainstream cultural productions in the last decade, a period marked in biomedical terms by the success of antiretroviral drugs, chronification, the importance of undetectability, and the increasingly widespread use of the prophylaxis pre-exposition (PrEP). By analyzing ten mainstream blockbuster films and fiction series produced from 2013 to 2022, this study examines the main characteristics of the Philadelphia Syndrome: nostalgia and melodramatic use of the 1980s and 1990s, high stigmatization of gay sexualities, and a neglect of women with HIV
Art · Family medicine · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Human sexuality · Literature · Mainstream · Narrative · Neglect · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Medicine · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Psychology
Mental health and HIV/Aids
Association between public views of mental illness and self-stigma among individuals with mental illness in 14 European countries
How Does Stigma “Get Under the Skin”?
The monogamous/promiscuous optics in contemporary gay film
Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity
HIV on TV
What do we know about interventions to reduce intersectional stigma and discrimination in the context of HIV? A systematic review
Prevalence, Comorbidity, and Correlates of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders and Associations with HIV Risk Behaviors in a Multisite Cohort of Women Living with HIV
Pose and HIV/Aids
Beyond the “Trans Fact”? Trans Representation in the Teen Series Euphoria
Portrayals of Caring Masculinities in Fiction Film
On not really being there
Representing gender-based violence in teen series
Aids melodrama now
Telephone networks and transactional motherhood in Channel 4’s It’s A Sin
When culture fails
Learning FromPhiladelphia
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |