ABSTRACT
Popular media has a long history of representing disabled bodies as asexual - neither sexually desiring nor desirable. Not until relatively recently did the media begin to represent disabled bodies as having any form of sexual desire or sexual desirability. Recently, however, contemporary film and media have started to consider the intersection of disability, sexuality and romantic relationships. Within all the great civilisations, there have been stories of monsters and mythical creatures who have been read as godly forecasts - either showing the power of God/gods or warning of things to come. Although The Undateables is certainly raising disability awareness, it is possible to read the show as a textual sponge which, like earlier freak shows, absorbs one of the main anxieties of contemporary culture: being single. This chapter considers a highly controversial show which, like many contemporary media texts, is shrewdly ironic and open to a variety of interpretations.
