The work of disabled identities in intimate relationships

Abstract

This article details a thematic analysis of disabled men and women’s accounts of past and present intimate relationships. Drawing upon the sexual stories of 25 disabled people, informants’ intimate relationships are explored as a site of emotional work, and as a site of other forms of (gendered) work. This article critically questions the work carried out by informants and considers the ways in which it was shaped by their lived experiences of gender, sexuality, impairment and disability. The article concludes that the requirement to carry out forms of work within intimate and sexual life constituted a form of psycho-emotional disablism.