Open AccessPrivacy, Dependency, Discegenation: Toward a Sexual Culture for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Author(s) -
Rachel Adams
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
disability studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2159-8371
pISSN - 1041-5718
DOI - 10.18061/dsq.v35i1.4185
Subject(s) - taboo , context (archaeology) , agency (philosophy) , psychology , intellectual disability , meaning (existential) , dependency (uml) , sociology , social psychology , gender studies , social science , anthropology , paleontology , psychiatry , psychotherapist , biology , systems engineering , engineering
Monica and David, (Alexandra Codina 2010), Girlfriend (Justin Lerner 2010), and Me Too [Yo también] (Antonio Naharro and Á lvaro Pastor, 2009) are recent films that explore the need for companionship, intimacy, and sexual expression among people with intellectual disabilities. They break ground in showing people with intellectual disabilities as capable of sexual agency as well as sustaining committed, mutually satisfying relationships. However they also consider the meaning of sex in the context of dependency. More challenging still, they probe the taboo of "discegenation," sex in which only one partner is disabled. In doing so, they raise complicated questions about consent, desire, and privacy in all sexual encounters.