Sex and Disability

by Robert McRuer (Editor), Anna Mollow (Editor)

The title of this collection of essays, Sex and Disability, unites two terms that the popular imagination often regards as incongruous. The major texts in sexuality studies, including queer theory, rarely mention disability, and foundational texts in disability studies do not discuss sex in much detail. What if "sex" and "disability" were understood as intimately related concepts? And what if disabled people were seen as both subjects and objects of a range of erotic desires and practices? These are among the questions that this collection's contributors engage. From multiple perspectives—including literary analysis, ethnography, and autobiography—they consider how sex and disability come together and how disabled people negotiate sex and sexual identities in ableist and heteronormative culture. Queering disability studies, while also expanding the purview of queer and sexuality studies, these essays shake up notions about who and what is sexy and sexualizable, what counts as sex, and what desire is. At the same time, they challenge conceptions of disability in the dominant culture, queer studies, and disability studies.

Contributors. Chris Bell, Michael Davidson, Lennard J. Davis, Michel Desjardins, Lezlie Frye, Rachael Groner, Kristen Harmon, Michelle Jarman, Alison Kafer, Riva Lehrer, Nicole Markotić, Robert McRuer, Anna Mollow, Rachel O’Connell, Russell Shuttleworth, David Serlin, Tobin Siebers, Abby L. Wilkerson

Genres: Disability, Sexuality, Disability Studies, Nonfiction, Queer, Essays, LGBT

417 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2011

About the author

Robert McRuer is a Professor of English at George Washington University. His work focuses on queer and crip cultural studies and critical theory.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[kimberly_rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter connects LGBTQ peoples' rights with Disabled peoples' rights: access and space in both private and public domains, and control of one's body. I think this is fascinating and apt: it really makes the establishing of these rights significant to every single person: it's freedom... to achieve what all humans need, freedom for competence, for autonomy, for psychological relatedness.

The middle of the book wobbles into "hmm, I wonder what I should make for dinner... or, oh, look at that novel on my living room floor, the one that just skid out of my tipping pile! I'll go read that for a bit" land. Translation: Boring. I started to forget the book was about *disability* and sexuality and began wondering, 'When did I pick up a book about [x]?' The focus seemed to shift from *disability*. On the other hand, maybe I missed the point of some essays because of the writing verbiage, the I'm-proving-I'm-smart writing. I don't like having to *dissect* sentence after sentence in order to follow your argument, especially when your points would have been clever and interesting if written succinctly. I would not have lost respect for you in the morning, baby.

Still, the majority of essays I enjoyed and learned from, and, of those, they were sensitive, diverse, unique, and accessible. Worth picking up, just don't be afraid to rummage through the toy box.

I recommend these ones:

A Sexual Culture for Disabled People
Bridging Theory and Experience: A Critical-Interpretive Ethnography of Sexuality and Disability
The Sexualized Body of the Child: Parents and the Politics of "Voluntary" Sterilization...
Sex as "Spock": Autism, Sexuality, and Autobiographical Narrative
Fingered
Desire and Disgust: My Ambivalent Adventures in Devoteeism
Hearing Aid Lovers, Pretenders, and Deaf Wannabees

3.5 stars

[Asher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have VERY mixed feelings on this book.

Chapters 1-3 were the proverbial cream of the crop. Most of the best content is stored in the first section, Access.

Chapter 6, Pregnant Men, was not one I'd recommend reading. It doesn't say anything particularly heinous, but it has basically nothing to do with disability, and seems an uncomfortable and unnecessary focus to add to this book.

Chapters 10 - 13 were very enjoyable reads, with some unique and interesting perspectives.

Chapter 14 (Is Sex Disability?) was baffling, to say the least.

Chapters 16 & 17 were a very real and nuanced look into specific communities who fetishize disability in several different ways.

[MLDunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely fascinating. The diversity in methodological approaches and narrative helped keep each reading fresh, and for me, the writing styles of each author were accessible and did not have me going "huh" or looking up too many vocabulary words along the way. I felt liked I learned so much more than I expected with this book, so I am not the person to look to for a critique. The blend of queer and disability studies is needed and articulated well throughout.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heady, scholarly and personal collection of perspectives. This served a great study guide for my research in writing my two disability-inclusive novels, 'Every Time I Think of You' and its sequel 'Message of Love.' In particular, the LGBT aspects were appreciated, and often missing from other nonfiction books about disability.

[Crois M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite sections:

Is Sex Disability?
Desire and Disgust

[Melanie Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the articles in this book were 5/5 stars. Some were 1/5. Overall, I learned a lot about the topic and a variety of angles were explored.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read. I suffer from chronic pain and this book personally helped me so much.

[Orhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

***updated Nov 2024***

I wrote a fairly positive review of this volume half a decade ago, but this was prior to me arriving at the realisation that disability studies is actively hostile to dialectical contradiction I.E: negation as the overcoming and the new synthesis entailed therein, not merely a rearguard return to an earlier affirmation.

For us, what matters is not affirming our disability or the sickening nausea of pride (the unsatiated moloch of policy wonks in their dilettantish succouring and propagation of ideological conformity and hence oppressive institutions) but precisely to render said categorisations irrelevant. Only the truly species-economy based on usufruct thus can abolish disablement as we know it, as it re-integrates the individual into the totality, without for that crushing her under the weight of tributary society. We require not the triumph of enlightenment atheism (a rather serious matter in the 18th century) but precisely to affirm materialism as the always extant and developing anti-philosophical tendancy in philosophy. Less abstract studies, and more investegations into motion as the mode of existence, which is, of course, the inherent attribute of the concept of matter.

[Duke Press]

“[S]timulating, thought-provoking, and fascinating. Many of the entries left me with food for thought, including some intriguing reframing of social issues that will inform my own work in the future.”-S. E. Smith, Global Comment

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too academic, too dry.