Acts of transgression that threatens the “mythic, stable family” o The family at the heart of AIDS commentary is an ideological unit, as yet supposedly unaffected but held to be threatened by the “leakage” of HIV infection , which like nuclear fallout, is widely and erroneously perceived to be everywhere about us, a deadly miasma of contagion and death o The normalizing optic of the mythic family gained momentum during the Reagan era. Reaganism, the signature of an alliance backlash politics, was characterized by the revival of a conservative patriotism generated and legitimated around bodies and a related series of racist, anti-gay anti-feminist, pro nuclear family, prolife, anti-social welfare, and anti affirmative action positions. Under Reagan, America’s economic and social problems were to a great extent, attributed to the breakdown of the nuclear family and the moral fabric of society.
Living La Vida Loca East of Eden