I wonder if it's the younger YN crowd that is not seeing the connection? I was pretty young when I saw that movie in 1994, but it never occurred to me that it could be anything other than AIDS; the reference was completely unambiguous. I guess things had changed in the 12 years between the coinage of "AIDS" and that movie, but it still resembled the way people talked about it, and I think the memory of not knowing what it was was still fresh in the culture.
It was very obvious to me too, a teenager back then. The thing is, the entire film puts Forrest in the middle of countless major historical and cultural events. He serves in the Vietnam War. He phones in the Watergate Hotel break in. He speaks at the giant peace rally on the Mall. He co-founds the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. He even invests in Apple ("some fruit company.") Having him witness the early rumblings of the AIDS epidemic is just one more example.
He was named about his relative named Forrest, who was part of a group that wore bed sheets and rode around on horses that also wore bed sheets. - KKK reference.
Forrest was at the U. of Ark. during the time of integration, and picked up the book dropped by one of the Little Rock 9.
He coined the term 'Shit Happens' and the smiley face t-shirt.
He was at the University of Alabama, not Arkansas. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama is blocking the entrance in a famous scene in American history known as "The Stand in the Schoolhouse Door." [1]
My dad was a professor at the University of Georgia during this time and still talks about what it was like being in the south at that time. Really fascinating to hear him describe it. He actually drove through Arkansas on a university research field trip right when desegregation was beginning to be enforced and saw the National Guard in place to enforce it.
It's probably easier to spot if you're older because absolutely everything in that movie screams reference to past cultural artifact. So you'd be looking for that in every detail. A younger person would be more likely to take the plot elements at "face value", as original or as standard story tropes.
That said I was around 15 at the time I saw it so recent history probably had a lot to do with it. AIDS was in the news a lot more in the 90s.
I saw the movie only a few years ago in my early twenties and I didn't get it. It never occurred to me 'not knowing what it is' meant AIDS back then. I'm not North American so the reference was totally lost on me. Also I didn't think it was an important detail and I never thought about it.
Nice catch. Additional data point: I saw it when it came out, and it was obvious it was AIDS. I guess that's a piece of history that's gradually fading now.
I think it being a movie may have caused people to overlook the reference. I can see how easy it would be to think that Jenny's mystery disease is actually just a made-up plot device to move the story forward, as opposed to a reference to a real disease. I only caught it because my parents are doctors and I happened to be watching it with them - I asked them if she had AIDS and they said that's probably what it was.
