Positive Women: Voices of Women Living with AIDS

by Andrea Rudd, Andrea Rudd (Editor)

This book is about women who shatter myths, take control and find their own power in the challenge of living with AIDS. This is an insightful and emotionally moving book which informs and inspires.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT

276 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

Reviews

[Monique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I found in the MCWH library at work... an international anthology of works by women living with HIV and AIDS. While a lot of the contributors were from the West - mainly Canada - it includes a wide range of women's experiences. The editors were very open about the processes they used to collect the stories, poems and artworks and work hard to acknowledge some of the voices that were left out.

I really appreciated the intro, which noted that "there are going to be words, opinions and decisions presented in these pages with which not everyone will agree..." They placed a content warning on homophobic attitudes and discussions of sexual abuse and also noted that "...the women who write on these pages do not always have safe sex, nor do they always use needles safely..." They discuss the arbitrariness of categories explaining that this anthology will contain stories of "lesbians who have sex with men, straight women who have sex with gay men and bisexual women who try to move beyond a silence that they feel has been imposed on them by these categories".

Each story also included a short preface from the editors - a couple of lines giving you some context on the author. Lori's article, for example, is described in the preface as being "written from the point of view of a woman with a lot of choices for treatment, information and support". Others have been described as being "middle class" and in the two stories from Zimbabwe, they us to compare the different experiences of being black and white in the same country.

Overall, it was a lot better than I expected it to be. I feel like it didn't try to be anything that it wasn't and challenged a lot of preconceived ideas I held about how people live with HIV/AIDS.

[Three O'Clock Press]

In Positive Women, contributors from fourteen countries and five continents talk about living with AIDS. All the women are HIV positive, yet their stories are very different, representing a breadth of experience that reflects the diversity of women's lives. They are teachers, scientists, poets, artists, writers and students. Some work in the home, others have lived on the street, Their contributions include journal entries, narratives, poetry, graphic and photographic images. This is a book about women who shatter myths, take control and find their own power in the challenge of living with AIDS. This is an insightful and emotionally moving book with informs and inspires.

[Andrea W · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful and diverse collection of stories, poems, art, and reflections from women living with HIV. Intimate and inspiring, Positive Women houses engaging stories about the strength and resiliency of women.