Intimate Encounters

[crypticgirl]

For anyone who's interested, a link to a photographic exhibition on disability and sexuality. Very well done, and very thought provoking. No idea how accessible the pages will prove to be, though.

My favourite quote was the following:

I HATE when people tell me how well I've overcome my disability. To me, it's suggesting that I am separate from my body. But my body is me and I am my body. This includes my disability. It is a part of who I am and a part of what makes my body beautiful and a part of what makes me a beautiful person. My disability CANNOT be separated from who I am. I cannot overcome my own body.

Oh, and a warning. Anyone reading this who knows Darren Fitler should, um, be prepared. Because I wasn't. Not that it proved much of a problem or anything.  :)

Comments

like the quote

[3kitties.livejournal.com]

Would you mind if I friend you? I am blind and have a mild/very slowly progressing hearing loss, and reading your entries is interesting/informative to me. I haven't reached the point of dealing with sign; but my family is not used to dealing with me as a person with a hearing impairment at all and it is frustrating in social situations and in situations where they are used to walking ahead and letting me follow on with my dog. I can't hear them talking if they aren't either facing me or behind me now, so it's very problematic/frustrating for us in public.

Re: like the quote

[crypticgirl.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, go ahead. I plan on friending you right back. :)

I can very easily understand your frustration with your family. My ex's father, who meant very well, spent months yelling at me after I'd lost my hearing, in spite of the fact that I never responded to him! Other people just don't get my need to invade their personal space, or have them be in particular positions. And it's not really anyone's fault; what seems small and insignificant to one person can be a massive deal to someone else. It's just that there are so many of those instances for people like us...