“I would say that the most pervasive stereotype encountered by women with disabilities is a denial of our sexuality: that idea that because we are disabled, we do not or should not express our sexuality." Myroslava Tataryn, our advisor on disability and AIDS, spoke at the AWID forum on how this prejudiced notion increases disabled women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, and decreases their access to reproductive and sexual health care.

In 2002, I traveled to Ghana in West Africa to take part in a study abroad program in Development Studies. It was my first time living outside Canada and my first encounter with the international disability movement. I spent much of my time that year at a Resource Centre for Persons with Disabilities. Probably the most common question posed to me during this time was, “is it also difficult for you people to find husbands in your place, because for us here, as ‘disabled’ it is very difficult.” Since then, I have been asked the same question again and again throughout South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. I hear women’s stories of being compelled to endure unstable, often abusive serial relationships because marriage to a disabled woman is simply not considered acceptable in their community. I think back to Canada and I wonder if the only difference is that there is less of an emphasis on marriage in Canadian society. It seems that many women with disabilities worldwide face common barriers when seeking a committed partner…or even when presuming to be judged worthy of a ‘good husband’ or relationship. In denying our sexuality, the stereotype of disabled women’s asexuality denies our very humanity and tolerates treatment - rape, forced sterilization, abusive marriage - that would never be considered acceptable for non-disabled women or men.

I would like to emphasize that our struggles in terms of reproductive and sexual rights diverge significantly from those of the “mainstream” women’s movement. This is particularly evident regarding the issue of “Choice.” As much as the “mainstream” women’s movement has been fighting for abortion rights, women with disabilities are still fighting for the right to make our own reproductive choices. We must speak out against the coerced sterilization and abortion of our pregnancies. And we must continually fight to assert our right to choose to have and keep our children.

A report by an Equity Committee on Midwifery in Canada cites many examples of negative and stereotypical attitudes displayed by health care professionals towards the reproductive rights of women with disabilities.  A woman without an arm was asked on the maternity ward, “How are you going to raise that baby?” A woman with polio, when learning from her doctor that she was pregnant, was told at the same time that she had been booked for an abortion. Alienation caused by comments like these can discourage women with disabilities from accessing prenatal care.

Such negative stereotypes arise from prevailing attitudes that devalue the humanity of certain women by stigmatizing their differences as defective. By controlling and denying the sexuality of women with disabilities, society tells us we are not welcome. The widespread and growing demand for prenatal diagnostic techniques is also indicative of this attitude.

Renowned feminist disability theorist, Susan Wendell, argues that the euthanization, sterilization and institutionalization of women with disabilities is indicative of society’s extreme devaluation of disability. And while many white women have focused on abortion rights, women with disabilities and women from racial minorities have had to battle against sterilization practices.

In fact, the Canadian suffragists who were at the forefront of women’s emancipation in the early 20th century were often avid eugenicists who advocated for the sterilization and institutionalization of the “feebleminded”: those whom they considered unfit to populate an emerging Canadian nation. These first-wave feminists frequently portrayed woman with disabilities, with mental illnesses, and women from immigrant and racialized communities as a menace to society.

Although today Canada prides itself on its Charter of Rights and Freedoms, eugenic attitudes appear to linger beneath a discourse of equality. Many Canadian women with disabilities continue to experience pervasive bias that is so common that it usually goes unnoticed by society. Devaluing attitudes that require a constant defense of one’s dignity can eventually erode health, confidence, and well-being. Persistent mistreatment, whether attitudinal or environmental, in the absence of accommodations for differences, prevent disabled women from accessing sexual and reproductive health information, services, and support that are available in the mainstream.

In countries dealing with an AIDS pandemic, the exclusion of women with disabilities from these services is deadly.

Nevertheless, there is much that can be done. Feminist theories of disability can help us to unravel many of these stereotypes. Feminist disability scholars illuminate connections between the body and gender which in turn reveal some of the power mechanisms of our societies that have been previously ignored. A disability perspective on gender issues gives us a tool to better unpack the layers of oppression that exist in our societies. Not only do women with disabilities exist in every country and culture on this planet, it is also highly likely that most women (and men) will experience some kind of disability at some point during their lifetime. Therefore, admitting and accepting that disability is a very normal part of human life and integrating a disability perspective into our activist work, our programme design and our implementation of services is integral to the building of a more just and inclusive society for all women.

---

Bookmark this article with any of these social bookmarking sites: