MovieChat Forums > Gia (1998) Discussion > Was she realy one of the first female's ...

Was she realy one of the first female's to contract hiv/aids

posted 10 years ago by Born_Tomorrow
2 replies | jump to latest

I'm old enough to remember when this virus was only known to affect males, specifically, gay males. I remember being in the 2nd grade and our teacher explaining a deadly and incurable virus, that only infected men. I remember all the little girls giving a sigh of relief, then gloating to all the boys, saying stuff like "Nigh, Nigh," but the teacher scolded them by saying that it could infect their fathers, brothers and even future children, so it definitely wasn't funny. Then, a couple of years later, we were all very familiar with it and everybody knew the name. It was also becoming more prevalent in females and non gays.

It's funny that I remember so much about the early days of AIDS in America but I'd never even heard of this famous model dying from it. In fact, I had never even heard of Gia until I watch this movie on lifetime, a few years ago.

All typos and misspellings courtesy of a public educational system.

[–] mlapetite 10 years ago

First famous female to contact aids reportly. Supermodels chime and go. When gia died Cindy Crawford started and was referred to baby gia.

[–] Katiedidd 7 years ago

In summer 1982, it first hit the news that women could be affected, so Gia being diagnosed in summer 1986 (I believe it was--not Christmastime as the film shows) was nothing new. However, since it was uncommon in women, and few specific females suffering from the disease have been acknowledged up to 1986, Gia is considered one of the first specific women. I believe she was the first celebrity female to die of the disease (although the world did not know until much later).

Did your teacher really say a "deadly virus" was affecting only men? It kind of sounds like a modern retelling of the history. Films like "Forrest Gump" and "Dallas Buyers Club" jumble the timeline, and most people never know. So I'm not trying to be a dick. It's just that, male hemophiliacs never predated other risk groups that included women, so there never was "only men" after it was discovered beyond gay men. It actually took other risk groups beyond gay men that made them really start to suspect a contagion, so "virus" and gay men getting sick never went together either. So "only men having a deadly virus" was never a thing.

It'd be amazing someone paid attention to one small detail--the idea it was possibly a "virus"--and ignored a big one at the time: it had hit men, women, and children. If it was at a time a virus was known--late 83 at best but really April 84---it had been known in the news for over a year to be affecting both sexes. What ever year your second grade was, your teacher missed something, assuming it went as you said.

Nonetheless, it could make sense he or she missed some facts. The info could be overwhelming, and it was changing fast. Women being affected in summer 1982 may have hit the news, but specific women--at the earliest time I can name--came in Life magazine in summer 1985, I'm sure there were others, but they were among the first women to share their full names, and the article was a big one for letting the world know, "no one is safe." One of the women got it from her poz fiancé who had been with men before, and the other one got it from her hemophiliac husband. (Last I read, she is still alive thanks to staying healthy enough to see the discovery of the cocktail.) Women coming forward was pretty new then, so us knowing that Gia died just a year later--especially because of her fame--makes it seem like she was one of the first women, but it had been happening to women for years.