Abstract
While the social model of disabled sexuality offers a fundamental and vitally important critique of ableist assumptions concerning disabled people’s sexuality, it remains limited. This article offers a brief history and critical overview of the most recent scholarship emerging out of the social model of disabled sexuality; argues that the new scholarship, which is meant largely to challenge dominant ableist assumptions concerning disabled people’s sexuality, actually serves to reinforce the heterosexual matrix; and provides both theoretical and practical means of transforming the future landscape of (dis/abled) human sexualities.
References
Shakespeare, T.: The sexual politics of disabled masculinity. Sex. Disabil. 17(1), 53–64 (1999)
Shakespeare, T., Gillespie-Sells, K., Davies, D.: The Sexual Politics of Disability: Untold Desires, p. 60. Cassell, London and New York (1996)
Butler, J.: Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, New York (1999)
Taleporos, G., McCabe, M.P.: Physical disability and sexual esteem. Sex. Disabil. 19(2), 131–148 (2001)
McRuer, R.: We were never identified: feminism, queer theory, and a disabled world. Radic. Hist. Rev. 94, 148–154 (2006)
Davis, L.J.: The end of identity politics and the beginning of dismodernism. In: Davis, L.J. (ed.) The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd edn, pp. 231–242. Routledge, New York (2006)
Tremain, S.: Queering disabled sexuality studies. Sex. Disabil. 18(4), 291–299 (2000)
Shakespeare, T.: The social model of disability. In: Davis, L.J. (ed.) The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd edn, pp. 197–204. Routledge, New York (2006)
Shakespeare, T.: Disabled sexuality: toward rights and recognition. Sex. Disabil. 18(3), 159–166 (2000)
Fine, M., Asch, A.: Disability beyond stigma: social interaction, discrimination and activism. J. Soc. Issues 44(1), 3–22 (1988)
Fine, M., Asch, A.: Disabled women: sexism without the pedestal. J. Sociol. Soc. Welf. 6, 233–248 (1981)
Finger, A.: Forbidden fruit. New Int. 233, 8–10 (1992)
Garland-Thomson, R.: Extraordinary Bodies. Columbia University Press, New York (1997)
Hahn, H.: “Can disability be beautiful?” Soc. Policy 26–32 (Winter 1988)
Hahn, H.: The politics of physical differences: disability and discrimination. J. Soc. Issues 44, 39–47 (1988)
Hahn, H.: The social component of sexuality, disability: some problems and proposals. Sex. Disabil. 4(4), 220–233 (1981)
Prilleltensky, O.: Motherhood and Disability: Children and Choices, p. 45. Palgrave Macmillan, New York (2004)
Fiduccia, B.W.: Current issues in sexuality and the disability movement. Sex. Disabil. 18(3), 167–174 (2000)
Milligan, M.S., Neufeldt, A.H.: The myth of asexuality: a survey of social and empirical evidence. Sex. Disabil. 19(2), 91–109 (2001)
Howland, C.A., Rintala, D.H.: Dating behaviors of women with physical disabilities. Sex. Disabil. 19(1), 41–70 (2001)
Karellou, J.: Laypeople’s attitudes towards the sexuality of people with learning disabilities in Greece. Sex. Disabil. 21, 64–84 (2003)
Kef, S., Bos, H.: Is love blind? Sexual behavior and psychological adjustment of adolescents with blindness. Sex. Disabil. 24, 89–100 (2006)
O’Toole, C.J.: The view from below: developing a knowledge base about an unknown population. Sex. Disabil. 18(3), 207–224 (2000)
Prilleltensky, O.: A ramp to motherhood: the experiences of mothers with physical disabilities. Sex. Disabil. 21(1), 21–47 (2003)
Richards, E., Tepper, M., Whipple, B., Komisaruk, B.R.: Women with complete spinal cord injury: a phenomenological study of sexuality and relationship experiences. Sex. Disabil. 15(4), 271–283 (1997)
Rintala, D.H., Howland, C.A., Nosek, M.A., Bennett, J.L., Young, M.E., Foley, C.C., Donald Rossi, C., Chanpong, G.: Dating issues for women with physical disabilities. Sex. Disabil. 15(4), 219–242 (1997)
Whitney, C.: Intersections in identity-identity development among queer women with disabilities. Sex. Disabil. 24, 39–52 (2006)
Guldin, A.: Self-claiming sexuality: mobility impaired people and American culture. Sex. Disabil. 18(4), 233–238 (2000)
Potgeiter, C.-A., Khan, G.: Sexual self-esteem and body image of South African spinal cord injured adolescents. Sex. Disabil. 23(1), 1–20 (2005)
Karlen, A.: Positive sexual effects of chronic illness: case studies of women with lupus (SLE). Sex. Disabil. 20(3), 191–208 (2002)
Sakellariou, D.: If not the disability, then what? Barriers to reclaiming sexuality following spinal chord injury. Sex. Disabil. 24, 101–111 (2006)
Barron, K.: The bumpy road to womanhood. Disabil. Soc. 12(2), 223–240 (1997)
Buzzanell, P.M.: A feminist standpoint analysis of maternity and maternity leave for women with disabilities. Women Lang. 26(2), 53–65 (2003)
Tremain, S.: On the government of disability: foucault, power, and the subject of impairment. In: Davis, L.J. (ed.) The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd edn, pp. 185–196. Routledge, London (2006)
Hughes, B.: What can a foucauldian analysis contribute to disability theory? In: Tremain, S. (ed.) Foucault and the Government of Disability, pp. 78–92. The University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (2005)
Allen, J.S.: Unpublished paper presented at the international congress on women’s mental health in Melbourne. 20 March 2008 (forthcoming in the British Medical Journal)
Mosher, W., Chandra, A., Jones, J.: “Sexual behavior and selected health measures: men and women 15–44 years of age, United States, 2002.” Advance Data From Vital and Health Statistics. 362 (September 15, 2005). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Center for Health Statistics. 1–56
Emens, E.F.: Monogamy’s law: compulsory monogamy and polyamorous existence. NY. Univ. Rev. Law Soc. Change 29, 277–376 (2004)
Coontz, S.: The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. Basic Books, New York (2000)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rembis, M.A. Beyond the Binary: Rethinking the Social Model of Disabled Sexuality. Sex Disabil 28, 51–60 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-009-9133-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-009-9133-0