Already doing it : intellectual disability and sexual agency /

Gill (gender, women's, and sexuality studies, Grinnell College) examines a subject often on the margins of disability studies: allowing individuals with intellectual disabilities to be agents of their own reproductive rights, sexual experiences, and sexuality identity in the context of institutional limitations grounded in heteronormative stereotypes. Utilizing queer/crip scholarly analysis, the author critiques society's assumption of individuals with intellectual disabilities as being simultaneously sexual naifs and predators of "innocent" children. The desire of adults with intellectual disabilities to assert their reproductive rights and become parents is often circumscribed by the judiciary systems to the social work profession, by and large on assumed grounds of potential parental "incompetence" once children reach puberty. Rather than emphasizing the pleasure of the sexual experience, sex education--as presented to this target population--is taught along the lines of protection against potential abusers and use of contraceptives solely to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Forced sterilization, based often on untested assumptions of an inability to parent, is often ordered by judges, despite real-life evidence to the contrary. An accessible and interesting read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Daniel J. Winchester, Columbia University