A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of - Etheses - Queen Margaret ...

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there‟s never any representation of disabled people and sex… it‟s always like “Ooh,
you don‟t do that...” ...kind of thing… which also doesn‟t help… there, I said it…
it‟s not… it‟s not so much about sex, it‟s like… getting back to, like, talking with
other young people, it‟s like… they don‟t see you that way, so how can you expect
to see yourself that way… if you‟ve not… (l.1:1113ff.)
Roshni echoes Sarah:
Girls were becoming aware of boys and vice versa, and there ain‟t any of that going
on… and there‟s also this subtext within a lot of special schools that if you have a
disability, you‟re not going to be interested in boyfriends, or alcohol, or any of
that… basically, it‟s way out of your league, you know… (l.297ff.)
The expectation that young disabled people will not only never get off with anyone but also
not even be interested in getting off with anyone comes across as not just oppressive but as
dehumanising. Disability industry professionals can repeat clichés about how important it is
to talk about people with disabilities but in closing down such areas of experience they
impose considerable restrictions on what being a person involves. While there exists much
current public discourse on the vulnerability of disabled adults, vulnerability is not an
inevitable outcome of impairment, but is an outcome of the social and educational
environments and opportunities disabled people have experienced, or have been prevented
from experiencing, in their youth (Oliver, 1996).
Roshni points out that while non-disabled teenagers are culturally encouraged to try out their
sexuality as part of identity development, for disabled people:
I think that you… you then find, later on, in your adult life you start asking questions
about your identity which were perhaps better placed, or would fit better, in your
teenage years, but because you had to stifle them, growing up, erm… they take
different forms later on…(l.1:1032ff.)
One example of the impact of this prevention of emotional growth can be seen in Kevin‟s
reflection that:
It‟s never gone away… relating to women… I can talk to older women, but I could
never approach a younger girl… or younger woman… it‟s very, very difficult… you
know, I mean… I did get married… although the first girl I married was too
young… she was just… she was almost as bad as me, really… she‟d never had a