From her rambling and confusing, "back in St. Olaf" stories to her believing that she was the daughter of Bob Hope, Rose makes for one brilliantly entertaining, odd duck character. Her childlike innocence and scattered brained tales of impossibly out-there situations may make her seem like a rather dull knife with little to contribute, but that is not the case. I will admit, though, that when I originally started drafting my ideas for this post, I felt a bit like Dorothy when she was telling her boyfriend about the lessons the girls had taught her; when she came to Rose, she concentrated intently and even gave up after a considerable span of time to move on to a different topic, but mid-sentence she realized that Rose had indeed taught her something; "A square knot."
Funny as that may be, Rose was not a mere square in the plots. Indeed, it is time that we look at Rose in a very different light than the mere comic relief in a comedy. Leaving the characters countless charities in which she was involved aside, Rose had some of the most dramatic issues that occurred within the series happen to her. In fact, sweet, innocent Rose was confronted with one of the scariest diseases of modern times: AIDs. Yes, the child-like character goes seventy-two hours with the dark shadow hanging over her. But how? Now, you may be thinking that we know generally how the HIV virus spreads, we learn that in our ninth grade science classes, but in the 1980s, there was another way the disease was spreading and it was brought up TWICE in the Golden Girls. Any ideas? If you guessed via transfusions, then you are correct. If you thought Rose Nylund was needle-sharing, then in the words of Sophia Petrillo, you botchagalloop! Go back to Golden Girls 101 and review your character notes.
That's right, transfusions. How could that be? Don't hospitals screen blood donors and test the samples before they put blood from one person into another? Well, the answer for today is yes, but the reason did not seem necessary until the AIDs pandemic that left the world in shock. For my Millennial readers and back, we may not remember the fear and the hatred, the lies and the misinformed stereotypes that spun out from the early days of AIDs. Today, we know that it is spread by unsafe sex, the exchange of blood, plasma, or other bodily fluids, and from needle sharing. But in the early 80s when AIDs was the new terror on the scene, it was known as "Gay-Related Immune Deficiency." Why? because the first several cases of patients being admitted with symptoms of HIV in the US were gay men. But scientists and the health community began to realize that this was not a disease that was limited to the gay-men community. But who were these other victims? Some were users, but quite as the years went on, quite a few were hemopheliacs, people whose lives depended on blood transfusions as well as people who needed any sort of transfusions. The main focus on television (media included) was not on those folks, save for the Golden Girls, who again, did so twice.
In the first episode, Sophia brings a boy in a hospital a nectarine. His name is Sam. He can't be more than twelve years old and he is living in the hospital, wheel chair bound. Sophia visits with him, but the boy is sad because, "no one's ever beat it before." It's a short scene, but important. For those who were paying attention as they watched in the '80s, this little boy gave a new face to a seriously misunderstood disease. In the 1980s, the general people failed to realize the amount of AIDS patients who were children. Between the mid-80s and the early 1990s, there were almost 7,500 cases of children being diagnosed with AIDS, of them, 601 through transfusions, the rest, from their mothers (CDC). All of these victims were the silent victims, but at least the children were not the targeted victims unofficially deemed by the general public as "enemies".
Every other year or so it seems that there's a new virus that is blown-out of proportion on the media to be the next Walking Dead bringing Apocalypse. Between 2000 and 2016 alone, we've had Mad Cow, Bird Flue, Swine Flu, Ebola and the current flavor of the week is the Zika Virus. Now, this is not to downplay the serious and absolutely devastating effects these abhorrent afflictions have plagued on the human race. This is instead to point out that our focus on these diseases do not center around prevention, treatment, or information. Instead, we focus on the deaths and the carriers of the diseases. Granted, our streets are not filled with panic stricken folk running about madly, nor were there any in the '80s, but things are substantially different today than they were thirty years ago. For starters, we have far greater access to information via any electronic device we possess. This wasn't the case in the eighties. People relied on the papers and the TV to tell them what was going on. The information from doctors, scientists, researchers was not as accessible to the general public. Your average citizen was not sure what was happening, so fear, panic and stereotypes filled the voids left by the lack of information.
With the lack of
information spreading fear, stereotypes about AIDs and its victims arose like
mad. There were quite a few stereotypes within the episode that the Girls addressed: Sophia doesn't want to use the same bathroom as Rose for fear of catching AIDs, which Dorothy helps her mother to debunk; Sophia labels cups with Rs to keep herself from using Rose's under the same fear of AIDs being spread via sharing dishes, which is debunked by Dorothy and Blanche. There are quite a few instances in the episode where Rose expresses her fear of becoming isolated as no one would want her around if she is diagnosed as people back then had a difficult time finding work or maintaining their jobs due to the stereotypes that existed, but solidarity and the tight bonds of their friendship help prove to Rose that no matter what, her girls would be there for her.
The producers and the writing team of Golden Girls knew that they had the attention of the globe; they had been in the top ten spot since their first year and in their 5th season, they had upheld their desire to portray real family and real people problems with humor. And with the episode "72 Hours," that's exactly what they did. They did not have the answers to the AIDs pandemic, but they knew two things: AIDs was not a "bad persons" disease and no one could get through the process, whether they be waiting to be diagnosed or pushing through, without the support of their loved ones. Unfortunately for far too many AIDs victims, they were forced to suffer and die alone. For Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, they knew that no matter the outcome of Rose's test, she would not be alone.
The producers and the writing team of Golden Girls knew that they had the attention of the globe; they had been in the top ten spot since their first year and in their 5th season, they had upheld their desire to portray real family and real people problems with humor. And with the episode "72 Hours," that's exactly what they did. They did not have the answers to the AIDs pandemic, but they knew two things: AIDs was not a "bad persons" disease and no one could get through the process, whether they be waiting to be diagnosed or pushing through, without the support of their loved ones. Unfortunately for far too many AIDs victims, they were forced to suffer and die alone. For Blanche, Dorothy, and Sophia, they knew that no matter the outcome of Rose's test, she would not be alone.
Rose is eventually declared clear, but over 100,000 American people from 1981 to 1990 were not so fortunate and fell to the disease. Today, we do know more about AIDs, but still, people are being diagnosed. Approximately 40,000 were diagnosed in 2014, but this is a significant decrease from previous years We cannot let information about AIDs slip. Parents need to talk about safe sex with their children. We cannot depend on the school system to tell our children about the real dangers that are out there. Even Dorothy makes this point to her mom during the episode, after which Sophia proudly says that she has come along way from telling her daughter to not let boys touch her "you know w-h-e-r-e" (yes, she spelled out where), and proves it by giving to Dorothy a bag of condoms. That may indeed be a bit of an extreme example of talking safe sex, but it makes a good point.
TV is highly influential in our lives and the writers of Golden Girls knew this. For better or for worse, we learn a LOT from our TVs. Using innocent Rose as a banner for people who are scared and possibly very sick remains to be one of the most brilliant episodes of Golden Girls, if not television history. It showed how misinformed minds become subject so quickly to fear and to panic. Here in 2016, look at how drastic the measures were to prevent Ebola from entering our country. Look at the words used by the media about the victims. Would it not make more sense to inform and instruct people about an extremely serious disease, rather than make the suffering out to be the enemies? The next time our zombie-making disease arises, think of Rose Nylund, an adult woman who had a teddy bear named Fernando. Think about her when you hear about the victims who need love and support, not condemnation and neglect. Learn what you can about the disease itself and the preventative action that you may take. Learn from the Golden Girls, who sought nothing else than to show us how compassion and friendship can make the world, even a sick world, right.
Until next week, dear Readers, when we visit Dorothy Zbornak,
Your Humble Author,
S. Faxon
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