Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/10316/47660
Title: | Yes, we fuck! Challenging the misfit sexual body through disabled women’s narratives | Authors: | Santos, Ana Cristina Santos, Ana Lúcia |
Keywords: | Disability; Feminist disability studies; Portugal; Sexual citizenship | Issue Date: | 2018 | Publisher: | SAGE | Project: | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876-PPCDTI/118305/PT info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/338452/EU FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-019877 |
Serial title, monograph or event: | Sexualities | Volume: | 21 | Issue: | 3 | Abstract: | Southern European society has been described in sociological literature as ableist, patriarchal and male-oriented. Under such conditions, many disabled women face multiple oppressions on grounds of gender, disability, class, age, sexual orientation, ‘race’ and ethnicity. The social construction of the impaired body as passive and dependent is conducive to a process of desexualization, presenting disabled people as inadequate for a full intimate life. The dominant biomedical model reinforces this process. This article draws on selected works in feminist disability studies to argue that rather than a body which is unfit, or does not fit, the ‘misfit’ is instead a cultural failure in accommodating and cherishing diversity. The authors also suggest that the desexualization of disabled women is replicating, as well as resulting from, historical tendencies to dehumanize and infantilize women. The empirical data is drawn from a larger project ‘Disabled Intimacies? Sexual and Reproductive Citizenship of Disabled Women in Portugal’. Biographical narrative interviews with disabled women are analyzed to explore the notion of ‘misfit’ sexual bodies. Theirs are stories of counter-norms and the struggle for sexual fulfilment and recognition. The women’s discussions of sexuality point to a need to change the ways that disability and intimacy are addressed in mainstream scholarly literature, institutions and the state. Narrow, heteronormative and ableist understandings of sexual intercourse and the linear character of mainstream stories of intimacy are shown as hindering the prospect of the recognition of disabled women as sexual citizens. | URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/10316/47660 | ISSN: | 1363-4607 1461-7382 |
DOI: | 10.1177/1363460716688680 | Rights: | openAccess |
Appears in Collections: | I&D CES - Artigos em Revistas Internacionais |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Yes we fuck_Challenging the misfit sexual body through disabled womens narratives.pdf | 211.94 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
SCOPUSTM
Citations
22
checked on Sep 30, 2024
WEB OF SCIENCETM
Citations
10
16
checked on Sep 2, 2024
Page view(s) 10
1,351
checked on Sep 24, 2024
Download(s) 20
1,444
checked on Sep 24, 2024
Google ScholarTM
Check
Altmetric
Altmetric
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.