Philadelphia

Herber Y.

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Philadelphia

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Abstract

The issue of HIV and AIDS in America in the late 1980's is one laden with sociological importance; the film Philadelphia (1993) attempts to address some of the issues surrounding this disease and question society's behavior around diseased individuals and its repercussions. Philadelphia is a film that takes place in the late 1980s and centers on Andy Beckett's (played by Tom Hanks) wrongful dismissal suit. Beckett is an esteemed lawyer at the big Philadelphia law firm Wyatt and Wheeler. At the start of the movie he is promoted to be a senior partner in the firm and receives praise for his excellent work. The film's viewer follows Beckett from a meeting with a judge to an AIDS clinic where he is receiving treatment for his disease. While the viewer is made aware of Beckett's illness, he chooses to hide his illness at work, identifying a lesion caused by Karposi's Sarcoma as a bruise from a racquet ball accident.

Introduction
Beckett's illness
The main points in the film
1. The stigma of AIDS as a disease and its association's with specific lifestyles
2. Prejudice, discrimination and homophobia and its impact on health
3. How the disease is reflected in social selection and causation and the question of social death
4. The different strata and socio-economic status of people with the disease within the film
5. How familial support can effect health outcomes
Conclusion
Bibliography

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[...] He asks witnesses on the stand if they are gay and defends his question by saying that though the courtroom is an ideal place that lacks distinctions on sexual orientation, society is not; everyone is thinking the same question of what people's private sexual lives resemble. is sleeping with who and In this film and at this time that AIDS is portrayed as not limited by socioeconomic-status in any discernable way. The way that Beckett's family reacts to his illness is also remarkable in the film. [...]

[...] These features all tie closely into Philadelphia because AIDS emerged in the mid 1980s and was originally identified as the man's disease”; those who were affected by HIV/AIDS were assumed to have contracted the disease through promiscuous behavior and were believed to be social deviants. Additionally, Beckett faced homophobia and discrimination, feeling the need to conceal his sexual orientation as well as his disease from his peers and at work. Once people become aware of his condition, their opinions of him change; this is seen explicitly in the way they describe his work ethic (as “just when earlier he was described as being an excellent lawyer). [...]

[...] Would the same be true in today's society? Bibliography Cockerham, William C. Medical Sociology. 11th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Philadelphia. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perfs. Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington. Tristar Pictures Ulack, Richard and Skinner, William F. [...]

[...] As described by Cockerham, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, known as AIDS, is a disease of society in the most profound sense because it links to specific ways of life.[3]” This linking is through the most intimate patterns of human contact, and at the time in which the film takes place, Beckett claims that people didn't know how AIDS was spread. HIV also has a latency period of about 10 years which initially caused its epidemic-like transmission[4]. This private nature of AIDS can be seen in Philadelphia through Miller's wish that there would be no taboos that would impede the carrying out of justice. [...]

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