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Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure

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Abstract

In the realm of sexuality and disability there is public discourse on deviance and inappropriate behavior, abuse and victimization, asexuality, gender and orientation with regard to women, and reproductive issues in women and men. However, there seems to be a missing discourse of pleasure. The purpose of this talk is to shed some cultural and historical insight into why this may be so, to argue why sexual pleasure is important to quality of life, to point out a few of the consequences of not including a discourse of pleasure, to share some of my research on sexual pleasure in people with spinal cord injury (SCI), and to make a plea for inclusion of sexual pleasure in the disability studies agenda.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Sexual Health Network, USA

    Mitchell S. Tepper

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  1. Mitchell S. Tepper
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Tepper, M.S. Sexuality and Disability: The Missing Discourse of Pleasure. Sexuality and Disability 18, 283–290 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005698311392

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