Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Boadicea, a teenager in the late-1960s, remarked that, although the '60s heralded the
beginnings of a sexual revolution for women, societal attitudes toward disabled girls
and young women remained unaffected. Societal responses to her impairment, and the
asexual identity imposed upon her as a result, made it difficult for Boadicea to develop
a positive sexual identity:
Disabled young women … were generally and continue to be perceived as
asexual beings … seen as vulnerable, needing to be protected, asexual. Disabled
youngpeopledon'tindulgeinsex,theydon'tneedtoand,also,itwouldbetotally
wrong if they did, it would be immoral if they did. (Boadicea, 46-51 years, her
emphasis)
A number of the older women in the study clearly remembered being totally unpre-
pared for the bodily changes that puberty would bring. Some women reported receiving
absolutely no sex education from their parents or preparation for the onset of menstru-
ation, indicating a lack of expectation that disabled girls would experience the physical
consequences of being female (Morris 1994).
Hurried, necessary explanations may also simply be indicative of a social reluctance
to discuss bodily functions that are culturally taboo rather than a deliberate denial of
sexuality or sexual potential; but the impression is nonetheless of a particular intensity
or awkwardness bound up in the non-transmission of relevant information on such mat-
ters to disabled girls, as revealed by the interviewees.
While at school very few nondisabled or disabled people receive good sex education
(SPOD1990b).Mostofthe women aged overfifty years oldreported that they received
no sex education at all, and that it was common for young people to be uninformed and
totally ignorant about sexual intimacy. Younger women recalled receiving limited sex
education in the guise of biology or personal hygiene classes. Many women referred to
gaining information about the facts of life or mechanics of sex, but not in a form that
was necessarily relevant or useful to them. These are given, taken for granted bodily
functions for nondisabled girls and women but not for disabled girls or women. These
were usually just one or two classes and tended to be sex segregated. Only one woman
who attended special school recalled sex education being part of the educational cur-
riculum, included in a biology course. It is perhaps significant that for subjects such as
science andbiology,pupilswalkedtheshortdistance fromthesegregated special unitto
join mainstream classes in the neighboring school. Therefore, the special school had no
involvement in the delivery of sex education.
Disabled people in general and disabled women in particular are often perceived as
childlike or asexual. Hence, systems of social regulation evolve that exercise normat-
ive control over individuals (Turner 2001), and in the case of disabled women normat-
