Already doing it : intellectual disability and sexual agency PDF
Preview Already doing it : intellectual disability and sexual agency
Already Doing It This page intentionally left blank AlreAdy doing it Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency MIchAel GIll University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis / London The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges financial assistance for the publication of this book from the Committee for Support of Faculty Scholarship at Grinnell College. An earlier version of chapter 1 was published as “Rethinking Sexual Abuse, Questions of Consent, and Intellectual Disability,” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 7, no. 3 (2010): 201– 13; reprinted by permission of Springer. A portion of chap- ter 2 appeared as “Sex Education and Young Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: Crisis Response, Sexual Diversity, and Pleasure,” in The Myth of the Normal Curve, ed. Curt Dudley- Marling and Alex Gurn, 171– 86 (New York: Peter Lang, 2010); reprinted with permission of Peter Lang Inter national Academic Publishers. An earlier version of chapter 3 was published as “Sex Can Wait, Masturbate: The Politics of Masturbation Training,” Sexualities 15, nos. 3– 4 (2012): 472– 93; reprinted with permission of Sage Publications, Ltd. An earlier version of chapter 7 was published as “The Specials Meet the Lady Boys of Bangkok: Sexual and Gender Transgression, and Smashing Intellectual Disability,” The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 34, nos. 3– 4 (2012): 156– 69; reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd. Copyright 2015 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gill, Michael Carl. Already doing it : intellectual disability and sexual agency / Michael Gill. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-8297-3 (hc: alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-8298-0 (pb: alk. paper) I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Intellectual Disability. 2. Sexuality. 3. Education of Intellectually Disabled. 4. Sex Education. 5. Sex Offenses. WM 307.S3] RC570 362.3—dc23 2014019915 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer. 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For 은정 This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface: Violations of Sexual life ix Introduction: Sexual Ableism exposed 1 1 Questions of consent: Rethinking competence and Sexual Abuse 23 2 Pleasure Principles: From harm Reduction to Diversity in Sex education 47 3 Sex can Wait, Masturbate: The Politics of Masturbation Training 83 4 Reproductive Intrusions: The Fight against Forced Sterilization 105 5 Not Just an Able- Bodied Privilege: Toward an ethics of Parenting 125 6 Screening Sexuality: Media Representations of Intellectual Disability 145 7 Smashing Disability: Sexual Transgression and the lady Boys of Bangkok 173 conclusion: Dismantling Ableist Assumptions 191 Acknowledgments 195 Notes 199 Index 249 This page intentionally left blank Preface Violations of Sexual life This project began out of personal experience. Early on in my graduate education in disability studies, one of my professors asked the stu- dents in her class about our earliest memory of disability. Immediately, I thought back to my then- recent work at a sheltered workshop for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.1 Prior to en- tering graduate school, I provided vocational support in Spokane County, Washington. I replied to the professor’s inquiry with a ster- ile and rehearsed answer, something about my experience working as a job coach and support staff member. It was not until the bus ride home after class that I recalled previous encounters with disability— encounters that escaped me only moments earlier. When I was six or seven years old, I was at the Spokane Interstate Fair with my parents and siblings. In between the countless carnival rides and livestock animal exhibits, our family decided to take a din- ner break. The fair was crowded and seating limited. After getting our meals, we decided to join another family— a mother, father, and daughter— at an open picnic table. As we sat down to eat, I was fo- cused solely on my hot dog and fried cheese. But after a few minutes, I began to take notice of the other family. The daughter, who wasn’t much older than I was, was being fed by her mother. As she ate, some of her food escaped her mouth and ran down her face and onto the bib draped around her neck. For some reason it was difficult for her to keep the entire contents of each bite of food in her mouth. My cu- riosity and fear were ignited; I could not keep my eyes off the family. Even my prized hot dog had lost its appeal. Sensing my fascination and abjection at what I was witnessing, my parents quickly gathered us up and left the table. Only looking back on the experience as an adult was I able to realize that my staring and othering of this girl and her parents was a result of my own learned fear of difference and disability. The ix
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