Tuesday 23 October 2007

Shirty confusion

Walking on UCT Upper Campus, you often see a certain t-shirt. It's white, and has "HIV POSITIVE" printed on it in purple. No other information appears on the shirt, except for (one may safely assume) a manufacturer's label and/or washing instructions.

What is this all about? Treating this shirt as an interface to information, I must say that I don't find this a good interface at all.

Does the wearer of the shirt wish to impart that he or she is HIV positive? Do they mean to say that they are infected with HIV, and feel positive about it? Does it perhaps mean that they are not infected with HIV, and feel positive about that fact? Or do they just generally feel positive about the state of HIV in the country and how the government is handling it?

(If it's the last case, the shirt is in rather poor taste.)

Some disambiguation is needed here.

Edit: Does the choice of purple have some significance? I thought red was the ribbon colour associated with HIV/Aids.

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