The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and HIV Positive
The courageous tale of
Marvelyn Brown
A book review by Keith R. Green
If Magic Johnson going public about his HIV status served notice to African Americans that they were not exempt from the sting of HIV, Marvelyn Brown’s story is a clear indication that the younger generation did not get that memo.
Marvelyn was a daddy’s girl from Nashville, Tennessee. Though she was oblivious to the ongoing drama between her parents, and far too young to comprehend the details related to it, her troubles in life can be traced to their separation.
Her mother ruled their household with an iron fist, which, from Marvelyn’s perspective, forced her father to leave when she was only five years old. From then on, he’d only show up occasionally for birthdays or on holidays, leaving Marvelyn feeling rejected and yearning for the type of consistent and (arguably) healthy male affection that her father provided.
What she didn’t know was that he suffered from addiction to crack cocaine. Her mother had asked him to leave only after she’d had enough of covering for him and pulling the weight of their family on her own.
With only half the story, Marvelyn blamed her mother’s strictness for her father’s departure, and, over time, developed a degree of resentment towards her that would tarnish their relationship for years to come.
As she grew older, the harder her mother pushed, the more Marvelyn rebelled. School was never really her thing, but athletics kept her involved, barely. She excelled in both basketball and track, but allowed her insecurities to get the best of her, limiting her potential to succeed. She never really believed that she could be good enough to make her mother proud.
From the long list of do’s and don’ts that her mother repeatedly held over her, the thing that stood out the most for Marvelyn was to not get pregnant. Neither HIV nor any other sexually transmissible infection, for that matter, was ever mentioned.
Though she had learned a little about HIV in her high school health class, Marvelyn attributes the lack of understanding that she had about her own risks to the images in her textbook of sickly gay, white men and terribly thin people from Africa. For her, those were the faces of AIDS. And, because she was not having nearly as much sex as she had read Magic Johnson was having in his heyday, nor was anybody she knew, she was never able to recognize her connection to the virus even through his example.
For the most part, though, she played it safe. There were times, however, when her desire to fill the void that had been left by her father’s departure got the best of her. She tried, unsuccessfully, to get pregnant a couple of times, believing that carrying a man’s child would guarantee his love for her. The deprivation of a father’s love can lead to warped thinking within a child. Marvelyn’s search for love and acceptance from a man, however, eventually led her to place her trust in the wrong one.
Her Prince Charming (as she affectionately dubbed him) came complete with all the trappings of perfection, and a little something extra to top it off. He was older, good looking, gainfully employed, had his own place and car, and treated Marvelyn like the princess that she knew deep down inside she was. After several failed attempts at love, Marvelyn was convinced that this was the one.
A couple of months into their relationship though, Marvelyn’s dream was shattered as quickly as it had come to life. In relatively great shape from her years as a high school athlete, Marvelyn was perplexed by her sudden onset of chronic fatigue and drastic weight loss. She assumed at first that it was simply a passing bug, until her symptoms became so severe that she literally passed out one morning while getting ready for work.
She was not alone in her confusion with regards to her symptoms. Test after negative test, doctors at a local hospital were also baffled by what was going on with Marvelyn. One curious doctor decided to conduct an HIV test, the results of which would change Marvelyn’s life forever.
This doctor was able to determine that Marvelyn’s infection was a recent one, but was amazed at the rate at which the virus had advanced (her symptoms were not those typically associated with HIV seroconversion). Completely unaware of the stigma associated with HIV, Marvelyn began sharing her diagnosis with any and everyone, in hopes of gaining a better understanding about the virus that was ailing her. Why didn’t she know that she was at risk for HIV, she wondered? And if she didn’t know, how many other young, black women were also in the dark?
Thus began Marvelyn’s miraculous journey from a dying young victim of the virus that causes AIDS to a world-renowned advocate whose story has been featured everywhere from BET to MTV to The Oprah Winfrey Show, and throughout the African diaspora. Her story is chronicled in her deeply moving and inspiring autobiography entitled The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive. This book is a must-read for us all, but especially for young African American women who, like Marvelyn, may be totally unaware of their own vulnerability to HIV.
The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and (HIV) Positive (2008), by Marvelyn Brown with Courtney E. Martin is published by Amistad, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers; www.amistadbooks.com. Visit www.marvelynbrown.com.
