Cultural Locations of Disability

Snyder, Sharon L.; Mitchell, David

doi:10.1080/15017410701345365

Cited by 176 publications

(135 citation statements)

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“…Additionally, eugenic practices in the United States and elsewhere actively sought the sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities because of beliefs about their fecundity and insatiable desire for sex (Garland-Thomson 2005;Razack 1998;Snyder and Mitchell 2005). The virgin/whore dichotomy is at play in many discourses about violence against women around the world (e.g., see Fregoso 2000).…”

Section: The Case Of Kalie Mcarthurmentioning

confidence: 98%

Rethinking Sexual Abuse, Questions of Consent, and Intellectual Disability

Gill

2010

Sex Res Soc Policy

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This article explores sexual abuse for individuals with intellectual disabilities using a case of a young woman with an intellectual disability who was sexually abused by her peer mentor. This article deconstructs the complex notions of competence as denying individuals' legal recognition of their capacity for sexual expression. The potential for sexual abuse is used as a disqualifier that demands compensation to counter the risk. This compensation takes the form of harm reduction and protectionism. Additionally, the article questions the usefulness of pity as a response to cases of sexual abuse. I argue that pity, as an emotional response, perpetuates unequal power dynamics between the individual who experiences abuse and those who describe, report upon, and support the individual. Most damaging perhaps is that, when individuals with intellectual disabilities, women especially, are seen as being vulnerable or at risk for sexual abuse, the perceived vulnerability acts as a mechanism to deny their sexual desire.Keywords Intellectual disability . Sexual abuse . Competence . Consent . Sexual agency . Legal and ethical issues of sexuality . Cognitive ableism This article explores how to reimagine and reframe legal and journalistic narratives of sexual abuse of women with intellectual disabilities 1 by using crip theories that reveal gendered, heteronormative, and ableist assumptions about sexuality and pleasure. I examine the American case of Kalie McArthur, a young, white woman with an intellectual disability who was sexually abused by her white male peer educator, in order to consider how stories about "victims" in court cases like this can expose and dismantle interlocking systems of oppression existing in situations that result in abuse and assault. 2 McArthur's case and the discourse around it are instructive because of the ways in which notions of pleasure, competence, morality, and disability are used to frame the woman as a vulnerable victim and the peer educator as a predator. I argue that the notion of pity, unproblematized in feminism, limits the necessary respect for disabled women in abuse cases (Razack 1998). The utility of making assessments of competency based on intellect is also discussed in order to further deepen feminist disability studies' analyses of the interplay among gender, disability, and sexuality. Finally, this article discusses possible ways to theorize sexuality for people with intellectual disabilities mindful of (but not restrained) by the high prevalence of sexual abuse and complicated notions of consent.In Looking White People in the Eye, Sherene Razack wonders how feminists can "talk about the social context of women with disabilities without reifying the othering that marks this context in the first place" (1998, p. 51). More explicitly, Razack asks us how we can discuss sexual 1 The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities defines intellectual disability as "a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in a...

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Section: The Case Of Kalie Mcarthurmentioning

confidence: 98%

Rethinking Sexual Abuse, Questions of Consent, and Intellectual Disability

Gill

2010

Sex Res Soc Policy

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“…This has been not unproblematic, but the recent emphasis on this in the UN CRPD, in the definition and statistics regarding disability (registered in the work of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), and in Australian government policy, is encouraging. In the area of theory, the social model of disability, derived from the British disability movement and disability studies, still has an strong, if not dominant, influence (Dowse, 2001;Shakespeare, 2006), though Australian disability studies has always drawn from both the UK and US modes of disability theory (Siebers, 2008;Snyder & Mitchell, 2006), as well as non-metropolitan accounts (Goggin & Newell, 2005;Meekosha, 2004).…”

Section: Disability Research and Criticism In Australiamentioning

confidence: 98%

‘Laughing with/at the disabled’: the cultural politics of disability in Australian universities

Goggin

2010

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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In 2007 the film-maker Michael Noonan embarked on a project initially entitled 'Laughing at the Disabled' (a title then changed to 'Laughing with the Disabled'), a collaboration between himself and three people with intellectual disabilities. A doctoral candidate in the Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Noonan's film was the subject of a furious attack by two QUT academics Á and then became a cause celébrè not only in Australia but around the world. The 'Laughing at/with the Disabled' project became a touchstone for the futility and contempt inherent in much contemporary academic research and teaching Á but especially was viewed by many as proof of the troubling status of disability in Australian universities. While it has been widely discussed in the press, and with the furore continued online via blogs, YouTube, and email lists, there has been an absence of critical discussion of the case. Accordingly, in this paper, I analyze the public record covering the criticisms of this research project, disciplinary action by QUT, and responses by those involved in the research. Rather than making judgments on the project, I explore this case for the light it sheds on the place of disability in Australian culture, the role of power, questions of ethics Á and, perhaps most importantly, the cultural politics of disability in education.

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“…This type of discrimination could be suggested as being the reason why governments and society distance themselves from being part of the disability paradigm resulting in non-responsive behaviour on issues of disability (Snyder and Mitchell 2007). Continued stigma and discrimination of disabled people from main stream society consequently prompted disabled people's organisations in Africa to convene dialogue with government leaders, employers and other stakeholders on promoting active participation in education, training and employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities (International Labour Organisation 2010).…”

Section: Disability and Accessibility In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%