Column: Sex in CINcity

I am a member of several communities that consider themselves to be sex-positive. This doesn't mean that all members of the community are having tons of sex all the time. It means that we view sexuality and sexual expression as natural, healthy and important parts of life.

Occasionally, we are challenged to look at our assumptions and assess how truly open we are. The most recent challenge to one community I'm in came from Jes Sachse, a student living with a physical disability at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

We weren't challenged by her work on Queerlines, the supplement to her university's student paper on gay and lesbian issues and sexuality. We also weren't challenged by the fact that she works with a feminist erotica and porn initiative.

What challenged us is her participation in the porn. Sachse describes herself as a "(gender) queercrip feminist kid" with, "one short leg and one odd stride." Within the sex-positive community we're in, few I know react to her identifying as genderqueer, riotgrrl, or feminist. It's the "crip" part that has caused reactions.

As a person living with a disability, her sexuality is routinely denied or stigmatized by those around her.

I believe in our culture, sex is associated with youth and mainstreamed concepts of physical attractiveness. Those who don't fit within the confines of youth and "traditional beauty" are often regarded as non-sexual.

In fact, things that connect those outside of the "young and pretty" standard with sexual behavior are seen as either unseemly or unacceptable.

Don't think this is true? Why then, do we invoke Bea Arthur and Margaret Thatcher as "mood-killers?" Why is there public outrage when we try to discuss safer sex in senior centers? Why do people think pictures of women who are obese wearing lingerie "must be a joke?" Why do even sex-positive communities get uncomfortable when a woman with a disability appears in porn?

As quoted in Arthur, Trent University's student newspaper, Sachse began producing and appearing in erotic work because, "you don't see a lot of people with disabilities in porn."

She has described her work with the feminist erotica and porn initiative she joined last fall as empowering because it gives her the chance to produce work that gives different perspectives on what constitutes sexy.

It also serves as a needed reminder that we shouldn't assume that people with disabilities are asexual.

Disabilityresources.org maintains a large resource guide about disabilities and sexuality for those who areinterested in learning more.

The National Sexuality Resource Center, which publishes the journal Sexual Research and Social Policy, had a special issue this month on sexuality and disability.

The articles look beyond the standard questions of "how" and "how often" and instead look at issues such as sexual orientation and socio-politics.

These are part of the process of those of us who are living without a disability (or, as I sometimes like to call it, "temporarily abled") waking up to the fact that sexuality transcends ability.

I hope that both organizations that work for equality for people with disabilities and organizations that work on issues of sexuality continue talking about this topic.

We need to continue to push ourselves every day to remember that not being young, not being traditionally beautiful or not being fully physically able, doesn't mean we can't be sexual beings.

E-mail Rebecca at

lehmanrl@ucmail.uc.edu.