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Sense and Sensuality: A Call for a Crip Dialogue Moving Beyond the Language of “Sexual Health” and “Healthy Sexualities”

Disability and the Changing Contexts of Family and Personal Relationships

ISBN: 978-1-83753-221-6, eISBN: 978-1-83753-220-9

Publication date: 10 June 2024

Abstract

The notion of sexual health has become a buzzword across various spheres, including the scientific, political, and social arenas. In a similar manner, discussions about the subject of disability and sexuality are commonly articulated through the lens of sexual health and “healthy sexualities.” Greater focus has been placed on issues of protection, abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancy. Opportunities to talk about sex, desire, and pleasure is missing in this discourse. Drawing on my experience conducting studies about disability and sexuality, I interrogate the (over)reliance and unproblematized use in terms of the language of sexual health and healthy sexuality when it comes to people labeled/with intellectual disabilities.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my colleagues Kristen Hardy, David Kinitz, and Alicia Walker for the feedback on this paper. I also owe gratitude to my colleague Rebecca Plante for being a mentor and helping me think through this paper. Thanks also to the two editors and the anonymous reviewer for their encouragement and insightful comments, which made this paper stronger.

Citation

Martino, A.S. (2024), "Sense and Sensuality: A Call for a Crip Dialogue Moving Beyond the Language of “Sexual Health” and “Healthy Sexualities”", Ciciurkaite, G. and Brown, R.L. (Ed.) Disability and the Changing Contexts of Family and Personal Relationships (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 15), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 203-216. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-354720240000015013

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited