Review: Sex and Disability

Excerpt from Global Comment: (click for entire article)

Sex and Disability is a fascinating collection of essays bringing together two taboo topics, discussed from a multitude of perspectives. As the editors point out in their introduction, sex and disability are ‘…two terms that are, if not antithetical in the popular imagination, then certainly incongruous.’ Integrating crip theory, queer studies, and related fields, the essays in the text explore a variety of subjects, from cultural attitudes about disabled sexuality to the need for intersectionality in historiography.

Daringly, Sex and Disability heavily blurs lines when it comes to the personal and the political. Some of the essays are intimate personal stories that would feel out of place in an academic text, but mesh seamlessly here. Others go even further, interweaving explicit personal narratives with rigorous academic examination. Chris Bell’s ‘I’m Not the Man I Used to Be,’ for example, examines narratives surrounding sexually active people with HIV/AIDS, and discusses his own experiences as an HIV-positive Black man.