When Dallas Buyers Club was released in 2013, it was an instant hit. With box office sales of over $27 million, nearly 5.5 times its production budget, the film was incredibly successful according to industry standards. It received six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, and members of its rock star cast walked away with Oscars for Best Performance in a Leading Role (Matthew McConaughey) and Best Performance in a Supporting Role (Jared Leto). Here, we consider how the film, set in the rural outskirts of Dallas, Texas, (re)produces metronormative and stereotypical ideas about LGBTQ people in rural areas.

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The film tells the true story of Ron Woodroof, an electrician who gets diagnosed with HIV in 1985. After realizing how difficult it is to receive necessary treatment, Ron devotes himself to helping HIV/AIDS patients get medicine they need by opening a Buyers Club for otherwise inaccessible HIV medication. That Ron, a heterosexual rodeo-going cowboy, is the film’s protagonist complicates narratives of the 1980s AIDS crisis as a predominantly urban and gay problem. It does so, unfortunately, through stereotypical ideas about rural place. Here’s how: