Loneliness and its opposite : sex, disability, and the ethics of engagement /

This book compares Sweden's systematic erasure of the sexuality of persons with disabilities and Denmark's general recognition of it. Grounded in government reports and interviews with persons with disabilities, caregivers, sexual advisers, and sex workers, anthropologist Kulick (Chicago) and gender studies professor Rydström (Lund Univ., Sweden) take a capabilities approach, arguing that social justice is about individual self-realization of human dignity. Analyzing queer and crip theory, the authors do not assume that persons with disabilities need charity and protection. Though cognizant of the potential for sexual exploitation, they articulate a vision of engagements of various kinds, from friendship to erotic attachment, in which all persons should be able to participate. The diversity of impairments challenges the framework--elderly people in assisted living, those with psychiatric impairments, or people with hearing impairments are excluded from formal analysis although comparable to the book's cases. Facilitation of erotic activity, all but illegal in Sweden and imaginable only in reference to prostitution, is enabled in Denmark (if imperfectly) by extensive training of sexual advisers and premised on communication and consent, allowing for erotic self-actualization by individuals with disabilities. Complex but important to disability studies programs. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, professionals. --Jennifer L. Croissant, University of Arizona