Missing Discourse Research Articles

Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure

In the realm of sexuality and disability there is public discourse on deviance and inappropriate behavior, abuse and victimization, asexuality, gender and orientation with regard to women, and reproductive issues in women and men. However, there seems to be a missing discourse of pleasure. The purpose of this talk is to shed some cultural and historical insight into why this may be so, to argue why sexual pleasure is important to quality of life, to point out a few of the consequences of not including a discourse of pleasure, to share some of my research on sexual pleasure in people with spinal cord injury (SCI), and to make a plea for inclusion of sexual pleasure in the disability studies agenda.

Boys will be Boys

This article reports on a study of males perceptions about women how those perceptions were formed and the ideas young men have about ways to improve sexuality curricula. Data were gathered from interviews with 17 US male college students aged 18-22 (5 White 4 Hispanic 4 Black and 4 Asian-American). A review of the literature precedes discussion of findings on each of the following topics: the prevailing sexual double standard that rewards young men and punishes young women for being sexually active; differences in the perceived sexual motivation of males and females that result in females being more interested than are males in emotional intimacy; how sources of sexual information are located outside of the parent-child relationship with important information gleaned from television programs and from peers; the experiences of study participants in sexuality education classes; the fact that contraceptive responsibility is shared by males and females; and efforts to avoid sexually transmitted diseases. The article ends with the following recommendations for school-based sexuality programs arising from the implications of the reviewed and reported findings: 1) provide opportunities for nonjudgemental and confidential discussion of thoughts feelings and questions with informed peers; 2) avoid the inappropriate abstinence-based curricula that ignore the reality of sexual experience; 3) include the missing discourse of desire that expands views of sexuality beyond biology; and 4) respond to the impact of gender issues and sociocultural factors.