(S)excerpts from a Life Told: Sex, Gender and Learning Disability

Abstract

This is an article about Sarah's sexual teenage journey, seen through the lens of her mother, the author. It tackles learning disability, sexual experimentation, education, governance and responsibility. By using an autoethnographical method the article speaks personally to these intimate lived experiences and yet broadly and contextually these issues can give further insight into the difficult social processes that permeate surveillance and control, of sexual activity amongst a particular group of adults (young, learning disabled), by way of legal practice and sex education; family practices and the negotiation of power and control over sexual activity; and sexual citizenship and rights to a sexual identity.

Dyslexia, mothering and work: intersecting identities, reframing, ‘drowning’ and resistance

“…Valentine (2007) suggests that a good way to illustrate complex intersecting identities is by using one highly detailed case study. The work of Rogers (2009) encouraged me to make my case study autoethnographic. What constitutes autoethnography is contested.…”

Non-disabled Ableism: An Autoethnography of Cultural Encounters between a Non-disabled Researcher and Disabled People in the Field

“…It has also been used as a tool to analyse complex relations of power, such as in Rogers (2009) discussion of sexual surveillance and control. From the position of the mother of a sexually experimenting teenage daughter with learning disabilities, she questions if one has the right, or the obligation, to interfere in the sexual expressions of another human being.…”

“…Recent research demonstrates that disabled people encounter significant prejudice related to their sexuality (Rogers 2009;Kim 2011;Grønningsaeter and Haualand 2012;Sparkes, Brighton and Incle 2014). For example, disabled people are often assumed to be asexual by staff in health and social service organisations (Grønningsaeter and Haualand 2012).…”

Co-constructed caring research and intellectual disability: An exploration of friendship and intimacy in being human

“…The project came about as a result of previous research (Rogers, 2009(Rogers, , 2010) and a recognition that, 'little progress regarding the sexual rights for people with intellectual disabilities has been achieved' (Richards et al 2012: 103). The project was carried out over a period of three months in 2011 and explored young intellectually disabled people's narratives (Taylor Gomez 2012, Kelly et al 2009, McCarthy 2010.…”