The case for a focus on sexual access in a critical approach to disability and sexuality research
Russell Shuttleworth, San Francisco State University, Disability Studies at Cal University of California, Berkeley
Abstract
Within a sexual rights frame, I will argue for the use of a disability studies derived concept of access/exclusion to address issues of disability and sexuality. I will first critique both the disability studies research on sexuality and the sexuality studies research on marginalized groups for not systematically applying the concept of sexual access to elucidate the symbolic and structural aspects of multiple contexts that are relevant to sexuality. By sexual access I do not mean access to physical intimacy per se. Rather, my notion of sexual access is more encompassing and has two primary meanings: 1) access to the social and interpersonal contexts in which desire is evoked and sexual negotiations become possible; and 2) access to the psychological, social and cultural contexts and supports that acknowledge, nurture and promote sexual well being. Later in the presentation, I will focus on how opportunities for sexual expression and relationships for disabled people are constructed by cultural meanings of impairment-disability and desirability, which structure social and interpersonal relations and restrict disabled people's opportunities for sexual expression and negotiating sexual intimacy with others. I will finally address how access to sexual expression and relationships for disabled people intersects with the issues of sexual identity development and also interpersonal communication concerning sex, desire, romance and intimacy.
See also "Locating Sexuality in Disability Experience, A Report from Disability Studies: Theory, Policy, and Practice, The Inaugural Conference of the Disability Studies Association"