Lust for the long haul

Chronic Youth: Disability, Sexuality, and U.S. Media Cultures of Rehabilitation

“…35 In addition to the rise of prosthetics for wounded soldiers, rehabilitation encompassed other physical, mental, and social therapies meant to facilitate disabled people's "reintegration" into society. 36 As rehabilitation "moved out in front of the hospital, " treatment regimens for disability and disease relocated to the social and cultural realm rather than remaining exclusive to the medical sphere. 37 To illustrate this cultural shift, one particular story of rehabilitation's emergence is especially illuminating.…”

“…Ted's medical files described him as "periodically depressed and withdrawn, " "alternatively hostile, angry, and cheery, " and "a bit of a disciplinary problem, " and the papers describe how nurses cruelly removed all toys from The Room to punish Ted for not going to bed on time or not complying with medical proceduresa massive undertaking, given the lengthy sterilization process required to reintroduce them into his environment. 36 At age ten, Ted described himself as "the lost prisoner of Alcatraz, " and after relating how a doctor had been offended by him, Ted writes angrily, "I am an American. I have the right to say anything I feel without being punished. "…”

“…35 Nash notes that "16 and Tiger Beat served a similar function for [girls] that Playboy did for boys, " with "the most privileged photographic space" reserved for the centerfold. 36 Meanwhile, myriad articles about sex education surfaced in publications as diverse as Christianity Today, Ebony, and the New York Times Magazine. 37 Article titles posed provocative questions, such as "Sex in the Schools: Education or Titillation?, " configured sex education as a "powder keg" or an "invad[er] of the schoolhouse, " and even begged to "[b]ring back the stork!"…”

“…Didactically recounting exhaustive lists of symptoms and treatments, the novels emphasize the vulnerability of the body. 36 In so doing, the novels encourage a diagnostic gaze, so that while engaging in sympathy for the ill protagonists, readers participate in the diagnosis of symptoms and the brutal side-effects of chemotherapy or other treatments, described in lurid detail, which cultivates a feeling of schadenfreude, or pleasure derived from observing the misfortune of others. For example, Dawn Rochelle "look[s] down self-consciously at her legs" at the "huge, angry-looking bruises glar[ing] back at her, " the same bruises that had been a "road sign that had said Cancer" to her doctor (Six Months 5).…”

“…However, the "hallmark of the most reckless girls" was their desire to become sexually active within the next year-a desire, reported the study, less common among girls engaging in fewer risky behaviors. 36 Tellingly, no such definitive sexual marker emerged for "macho boys, " who often drank, smoked cigarettes and marijuana, rode motorcycles, and got knocked unconscious. Getting knocked up or knocked out seemed the most present threat for bad girls and macho boys, respectively-discoveries that reaffirmed traditional gender roles by assigning gender-differentiated notions of "deviant" behavior.…”