Dallas Buyers Club is a true story about a rodeo cowboy and electrician named Ron Woodroof, who has been recently diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). During this time, the 1980s, HIV/AIDS has been under-researched and over stigmatized. The drug AZT was FDA approved and the only drug permitted to assist this disease. But, instead of killing only the bad cells in the body, it killed every cell in came into contact with, resulting in untimely deaths. Ron’s self-set mission was to find another drug that could help this disease be less painful and less taxing on the body. He smuggles unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas for treatment, and sells memberships to the "Dallas Buyers Club,” where members are aided with various drugs and vitamins that control their disease. While …show more content…
fronted with hostility from the FDA, Ron continues his business until a court case occurs and Ron is only allowed to use his drugs privately.
Although this is brilliant and moving film Ron fights for what is right by doing something morally wrong. The act from which the whole premise of this movie is centered around is sexual promiscuity. Ron also goes against the authority in place and illegally brings back drugs to distribute. The film analyzes the life of the gay community and how they handled this disease in the 1980s. This film is morally wrong because there is failure to condemn sexual promiscuity, homophobia, rejection of authority, and encourages the notion of “right to try” that could potentially harm terminally ill patients. Sexually promiscuity is morally wrong. The main cause of HIV is unprotected sexual relations. Actions like this usually have consequences which can be seen through Ron’s contraction of HIV (Simpson). Although this is a very severe and ultimately fatal outcome, it paints a painful picture of what
can happen if we do not strain our emotions. While Ron is straight, most characters in this film are homosexuals. Living a lifestyle like this is one of the reasons that AIDS took the 1980s by storm (Simpson). In the culture that Ron lives, discrimination against homosexuality is as obvious as it is against those infected with HIV (Bulterys). Homophobia is an idea played out in this film as well. This is morally wrong because there should be no hatred between individuals no matter the circumstance. God loves everyone and desires a relationship with everyone. There should be no discrimination between these people. Ron’s character starts out being homophobic and denies that he could contract a disease that only these “untouchable” people can develop. Later on, his mindset is changed through shared affliction and he comes to be look deeper into someone’s character than just what is externally seen. Not everyone shares this same outlook. When Ron’s so-called friends discover Ron’s disease, they make scrutinizing remarks and begin to bully him. Furiously, Ron starts throwing punches and spitting on them. When Ron leaves his friends, they start to panic because Ron’s spit had touched them and terror strikes that they will contract the virus. This is completely preposterous, but it shows how uneducated people were about this virus and the homophobic society that was in place. The sexual promiscuity and the homophobic actions portrayed in this film, although morally wrong, are needed to provide backdrop to this unparalleled story. Ron Woodroof goes against the government authority already set in place. He ignores FDA policy and does what he thinks is right. Although he fights for what is right, he goes about it in a wrong manner by ignoring the laws. The 1980s was a time were big business pharmaceutical companies were twisted by politicians and drug industry leaders (Richert). The film makes the FDA out to be a villain. No matter if it is or if it is not, Ron went against their power and authority. During the trial that occurred in the film between Ron Woodroof and the FDA, the judge said, “the FDA was formed to protect people, not prevent them from getting help” (Richert). It is morally right to follow the laws of the authorities that are in place. Making tough resolutions concerning the complexity of drug regulation are essential to insure the safety and morality of those who could be involved. Crossing over the U.S. border into Mexico and smuggling drugs back into the U.S. dressed like a priest is not the right decision to be made, as seen in the film by Ron. Lying and deceiving are straight out morally wrong and should not be tolerated. This film encourages terminally ill patients to try and access experimental remedies to alleviate some of the pain that comes along with their disease. Ron mixes up concoctions of supplemental vitamins, experimental drugs, and non approved FDA drugs and distributes them to his members in hopes that it helps their pain and overall quality of life (Gorski). This film has inspired public policy to come up with the “right to try” bill, which states that a terminally ill patient could use experimental drugs and therapies (Gorski). This could potentially bring an ill patient’s quality of life down and could have disappointing side effects on them. These remedies and drugs are not approved by the FDA for a reason! This is morally wrong because it is giving false hope to the sick people who need safe medicine the most. This film is based around class. Not so much in terms of monetary class, but in terms of how people who are just different are treated. This includes the people who have HIV, the gay people, and the ones higher up in the social latter of the rodeo business. They are all treated different based on a certain characteristic or status. The doctors, in the film, fail to obligate themselves to tell the dying people that they may randomly receive a placebo rather than a potentially life-saving drug. Not only does this film encourage drug experimentation, but it also sheds light onto class discrimination. New structures of inequality are built in this film when it is highlighted how doctors and researchers distribute the drugs that could potentially save a person’s life. There is a scene where Rayon, a transgender woman goes up to see her father one day, but dresses like a man to please her father. Rayon’s father seemed more please to see that she was wearing men’s clothing than actually see her. This shows the rejection these people felt by their family, the government, and the rest of society. This encapsulates the rejection and isolation from society that the HIV community felt. Within this community there are several sexually oriented inequalities that threaten the rights of homosexuals. Countering this argument that the Dallas Buyers Club is morally offensive, people could bring up opposing insight onto why this film could be morally uplifting. It transforms Ron’s self-centered attitude to becoming an activist in his community. It shows the difference between disease and illness. Illness is the human response to the disease. The doctors rely on science to fight the disease, while Ron targets the illness in his community rather than the disease. One could also argue that the group of dying people seeking access to therapies that could help them is not wrong as long as it is helping their disease. This film has a powerful message that people should not reject those because of the way they live. These points are true but do not hide the obscenities and immoral behavior that is portrayed in this film. Classism and rejection of authority are the main concepts of this film. This film portrays people living life in sin, but also showing them trying to make up for it in the small amount of time they have left. The beginning of the film shows a rodeo bull bucking off his rider. This symbolizes Ron’s life and disease. The film ends with Ron riding a bull, with poise and control. This shows that although Ron’s disease will live with him forever, he has conquered his illness and taken charge of his life. Although this film has a great message it is morally offensive based on its prejudice of different classes and rejection of authority.
What I’ve noticed in the film is that the two main characters fit two standard archetypes of gay men. One who welcomes their sexuallity and one suppresses it. Ennis Del Mar is a man who before the story started was engaged to a woman named Alma. When Ennis and Jack begin their sexual relationship and Ennis tells Jack that he wasn’t queer,
We find out later that this senior executive had a previous secretary who had AIDS and was aware of what AIDS lesions looked like. The camera focuses on this executive staring at Andrew suspiciously. Nine days later, Andrew’s health conditions worsen and he is seen covered with lesions. He is feverish, vomiting, etc. He works hard at home to conceal the severity of his illness.
...le, abuse, pregnancy, money, accusations, sex, love, relationships, death, family and disagreements. These issues can be supported by scenes from the film but we could fail to appreciate the rest of this document. These statements are easily supported when viewing the film.
Carl Zimmer the guest speaker of this broadcast states that in 1981 doctors described for the first time a new disease, a new syndrome which affected mostly homosexual men. The young men in Los Angeles were dying and the number of cases was growing faster and faster. The number of deaths was increasing from eighty to six hundred and twenty five in just the first few months. After the first few cases in LA, AIDS was declared to be one of the deadliest pandemics the world had ever seen after the plague in the Middle Ages.
Just as Arthur Miller, the writer of “The Crucible”, said, “Sex,sin, and the devil were early linked” (Miller,1125). During the AIDS hysteria, homosexual intercourse was thought to be the cause of widespread immune deficiency, so the disease was soon labeled “Gay Men’s Health Crisis” (“History of HIV and AIDS”). As time progressed AIDS, it was discovered, could also be spread through heterosexual couples(“History of HIV and AIDS”). This
Woodroof’s pursuit to slow the process of Aids, in his system and others are restricted, as the F.D.A puts a halt to peptide-t. A drug used to slow down the effect of Aids, has on the immune system. By not allowing peptide-t in to the U.S. Woodroof fight against AIDS has became more difficult. Dallas Buyer’s Club is similar to Anthem and Harrison Bergeron due to what they pose in their societies an outlaw. In Woodroof a desire for a cure, in Equality a desire to advance his knowledge and self-improvement in Harrison Bergeron the urge to gain freedom which has been lost, all restricted by their societies views. To illustrate the idea of individuality being marginalised, in Dallas Buyer Club is this selected piece of
...ar. "Hiv/Aids Managing A Pandemic." Americas 61.2 (2009): 20-27. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
He also is a closeted homosexual. He has a high political power; this is the cause of him not being openly gay. The homosexual community has little power, and this scares him. He is obsessed with the amount of power that he has, and he will not lose that. This is where politics come into play, being a “right wing” conservative he is supposed to generally opposed to gay marriage. He is in a good political position and knows that coming out could risk losing power, and this is terrifying for him. He changed the label of his diagnosis from AIDS, to liver cancer to avoid losing the respect of people who are above him. The impression that homosexuals are nobodies is a great example of how identity politics or other things pressure people into becoming tied down by lies. The identities of people and their true selves is often hidden under the identity of what they are compelled to show others. Homosexuality is only one of the many things that can keep people from exposing their genuine identity. Throughout the novel many characters are diagnosed with AIDS. The first five cases of AIDS were initially reported in June of 1981. AIDS has taken the lives of 636,000 Americans. In 1992, there were 250,0000 reported cases of AIDS. Of those 250,000 cases 200,000 had died. A more recent study in 2004, there were 1,000,000 reported cases, only 500,000 had died. It is still decreasing today. Gay or bisexual men make up the
In times of need people will do anything to survive. This rings true, especially, in the AIDS epidemic, also known as, the “gay plague.” In this epidemic people out stretched their hands to the government for aid, yet they were denied. This led them to do the only thing they could do, which was, to find aid from someone else. This aid was not always legal, but in times of tribulations, it is usually anything that will help, goes. The movie, “Dallas Buyers Club” directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, depicts one of the best examples of this fact. In this movie, the people who were dying of the HIV virus would go to anywhere they could to get help. Then when help was scarce, they turned to the Dallas Buyers Club to get drugs smuggled in from outside areas. When I comparted, however, the movie of the Dallas Buyers Club to three articles about the real Dallas Buyer Club, what I found surprised me. These things were who the real Rayon and Ron Woodroof were, and how an article lied about the movie.
Eight years ago, the world economy crashed. Jobs were lost, families misplaced, hundreds of thousands of people left shocked and confused as they watched the security of their world fall to pieces around them. In, “The Big Short,” a film directed by Adam McKay and based on the book written by Michael Lewis, viewers get an inside perspective on how the financial crisis of 2008 really happened. Viewers learn the truth about the unethical actions and irrational justifications made by those who unwittingly set the world up for failure. Two main ethically tied decisions are brought into question when watching the film: how could anyone conscionably make the decision to mislead investors by misrepresenting mortgage backed securities (MBS), and why
“Clinically, the HIV infected adolescents present as physically stunted individuals, with delayed puberty and adrenarche. Mental illness and substance abuse are important co-morbidities” (Naswa, 2010). Naswa, 2010 also reports that adolescences with HIV have a higher susceptibility rate to contract STD’s that the average individual due to the thinner lining of mucus in the ovaries at this stage of their development. The stigma of living with HIV is also a factor for her psychosocial development. The fact that she contracted this disease from her father further contributes to emotional trauma.
Initially, Levin states that homosexuality is abnormal due to the mere fact that it weakens our society and inhibits our evolutionary development, not because it is sinful or immoral. He explains that being homosexual is a waste of bodily parts and a misuse of our genitalia. As a result, Levin argues that our body parts and bodily pleasures are highly related and connected to our happiness. Because homosexuals are misusing their bodies, they are more likely to be less happy on average than those who are straight. And in return, Levin believes that because they are less happy throughout their lives, they receive less out of life than the typical straight person. His theory as to why homosexuality is abnormal (because of humans misusing their body parts) may propose a weak argument at first; however he supports this aspect of his argument by giving an example unrelated to human sexuality. His example involves the use of our teeth, although we may not realize it, those who do not have teeth usually don’t enjoy consuming all of their ...
During the time when the general public believes the only way to contract HIV/AIDS is to be homosexual, an addict, or prostitute, Fisher being a white, heterosexual, married mother of two from an upper-class family who contracted the virus from her husband is herself the certifying ethos of this speech (1). She tactfully uses her own circumstances and diagnosis to embody the plight of all in the AIDS community and shows that no one is exempt from this deadly disease. She emphatically states that HIV does not care about race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation; all that it asks is “Are you human?” (2). She ceases to be the exception and gains the attention and respect of the American people when she aligns herself with others with HIV/AIDS with her statement:
In many societies people living with HIV and AIDS are often seen as shameful. In some societies the infection is associated with minority groups or behaviours, for example, homosexuality, In some cases HIV/AIDS may be linked to 'perversion' and those infected will be punished. Also, in some societies HIV/AIDS is seen as the result of personal irresponsibility. Sometimes, HIV and AIDS are believed to bring shame upon the family or community. And whilst negative responses to HIV/AIDS unfortunately widely exist, they often feed upon and reinforce dominant ideas of good and bad with respect to sex and illness, and proper and improper behaviours.
(HRSA) What was first thought of as a gay disease quickly became noted as a disease anyone could get through having unprotected sexual intercourse or receiving blood that was from a HIV positive individual had it not been for eighteen year old Ryan White a hemophiliac who contracted AIDS after a blood transfusion the stereotype that it is a “gay” disease would still live on. With widespread panic and the public not having much knowledge of the disease an epidemic swept across the world in the early 1980’s and still continues today. Through much research, public explanation, films, and songs the world quickly understood more about the disease and AIDS victims now are not persecuted as much. In the 90’s a few musicians decided to educate the world through their mus...