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Disability and Sexual Inclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2014

Tracy De Boer
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Abstract

Many disabled people face some form of exclusion or discrimination. One of the most damaging, yet pervasive, types of exclusion is sexual exclusion. Various factors hinder sexual opportunities for disabled persons, such as social attitudes around body image, gender, and sexuality. In this paper, I engage with Sheila Jeffreys's paper, “Disability and the Male Sex Right,” wherein she argues that discourse around sexual rights for disabled people is a veiled way of promoting male dominance over women. Though Jeffreys raises many pertinent issues, she assumes that when a disabled man seeks commercial sex, he does so as an act of domination or violence. I argue that when a disabled man seeks commercial sex, he is seeking the goods of sex, such as connection, intimacy, and pleasure.

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Hypatia , Volume 30 , Issue 1: Special Issue: New Conversations in Feminist Disability Studies , Winter 2015, pp. 66 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by Hypatia, Inc.

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Footnotes

Thank you to Colin Macleod for his endless support and words of encouragement. Thank you also to Audrey Yap for her constant positivity and for bringing this call for papers to my attention. Finally, thank you to my friend, who will remain nameless, for broaching the subject of sex and disability with me.

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