I grew up as a huge fan of horror movies, and the series of Friday the 13th movies were among my favorite. Jason Voorhees and his machete justice inspired me and my friends to purchase a plastic hockey mask and play out the movies every time the calendar reached that sacred date.
The first movie is about his mother, avenging her son’s supposed death at the hands of “distracted” (sex-obsessed) teenagers who were supposed to be watching the young Jason at Camp Crystal Lake. But Jason was really alive, surviving in the woods, likely watching his mother butcher those poor campers. Not sure if he was waiting for his roll of toilet paper to run out or for the calendar to reach April 1st before he jumped out to show his mommy was safe, but either way he waited too long- thus witnessing the last camper and the decapitation of his mother.
That, of course, set off a series of sequels in which young Jason grows up and continues the Voorhees family tradition of avenging a loved one’s death.
So how does Jason’s story relate to AIDS? Was he part of a top secret Reagan Era abstinence-enforcing unit? That sure would explain his penchant for cutting romantic encounters short. And, in writing the above, is there something in the origin of Jason’s story that tells the saga of the hemophilia community’s bloody crossroads with the AIDS epidemic? Parents of the children who were infected with HIV through blood product treatments banded together with the rage of Jason’s mother, learned the wrong-doings and failings of the institutions sworn to protect them and then sought justice and answers.
Perhaps I’m overthinking it?
Either way, there’s a new documentary out on the hemophilia community’s history with HIV and other blood-borne illnesses. It’s called Bad Blood, and it will be available on DVD on World AIDS Day, December 1st. I’ll be posting a reminder as that date nears... in the meantime, if you’re out camping and you hear something rustling around in the woods... well, my best advice is to use a condom, and hope that you are able to finish up before any uninvited guests join the party.
Positively Yours,
Shawn
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