From problem‐centered to centering relationalities: Engagements with disability and sexuality in India

Abstract

This article analyses how the sites of disability activism, special education, and online‐matchmaking approach the sexuality of disabled people in India. It argues that across these distinct yet overlapping sites, the sexuality of disabled people is engaged as a problem in need of a fix, which ultimately leads to the narrowing of disabled people's sexual choices, behaviors, and identities. The article suggests that when these field‐sites move away from a problem‐centered approach which focuses on looking for normative solutions and instead engage in the process of “problematization” by facilitating the sexuality of disabled people, they end up opening non‐normative, uncertain, yet perhaps more fulfilling sexual opportunities for disabled people.