ceargaest

[tʃæɑ̯rˠɣæːst]

linguist & software engineer in Lenapehoking; jewish ancom trans woman.

since twitter's burning gonna try bringing my posts about language stuff and losing my shit over star wars and such here - hi!


username etymology
bosworthtoller.com/5952

pendell
@pendell

There's some interviews about the Enterprise episode "Stigma" which is a clear allegory about HIV/AIDS, and in one of them, Scott Bakula says, and I quote:

... the fact that Viacom is interested in developing a world, a global philosophy, a global attack, if you will, on HIV and AIDS, it is tremendous and I think we need to do that as a country more and more, and I'm thrilled that I work for a company that is spearheading some of that.

Why's he sucking off Viacom so hard here? I there a Viacom executive just out of frame pointing a gun at this man? Were we as a country really just that naïve about media megacorporations as relatively recently as 2003?


NireBryce
@NireBryce

but they did fund one of the largest PSA campeigns of the 2000s about HIV and sexual health, and iirc it didn't even plug the sponsors.

unfortunately the best I can still find on it with a quick google is an industry publication which ofc will paint them in an even better light. But.

and to counterbalance: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229468130_Branding_HIVAIDS_communication_the_social_marketing_campaigns_of_MTV_and_Viacom

but in the 2000s most companies were still ignoring HIV/AIDS, and public service stuff was underfunded. it was kind of the first instance of "twitter bullies corporation into temporarily being a cause for good" before social media was a thing.


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in reply to @pendell's post:

Yeah this is especially weird coming in 2003/2004, like "this has been a topic for a minute, bud..."

Remember when TNG approached transgenderism and non-binaryism and the institutional prejudices against self-expression and non-conforming sexual or gender identities, in 1992. Whether or not it was a perfect example of representation, it tried and was very clear about its topic, in 1992.

It's possible that he was absurdly naive, there. He had done a fair amount of charity work for HIV-related charities (for example, the Anyone Can Whistle concert show), so an executive pitching the idea to him might have made him think that he had personally changed the culture.

It's also possible that they paid him extra to make a big deal about this, since the wound was still raw from TNG rejecting an HIV-analogous script (David Gerrold's Blood and Fire) on the grounds that how dare it feature a sympathetic possibly gay couple.

in reply to @NireBryce's post:

That is kind of cool, actually. At least it tells me that Scott Bakula wasn't some kind of bizarre corporate simp - he was just commending them for actually committing to a good deed for once. I think we can all safely say "yes, good job" when corporations do something that is universally good, whether or not their motives are pure.

True, being paid by the company would make it a lot easier to praise them when they're not being explicitly evil. He's just rationalizing living under capitalism, can't blame the poor guy 😅