Sex and disablement: what is the problem and whose problem is it?

Abstract

This paper offers a critical evaluation of the modern interest in the sexual lives of disabled people. We argue that many of the discussions of this topic fail to do justice to the complexity of the issues they confront, and this is largely because too many questionable assumptions are taken for granted, and many concepts are used too loosely. In this sense, many of the purportedly objective analyses are in fact ideological, and as ideology they contain vested biases an preferences that need to be highlighted and examined. In criticizing such work we hope to clarify some of the complex issues that pervade any discussion of the sexual problems of disabled people.