ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of contemporary mainstream news media in shaping sexuality and disability. Its focus is on Anna Stubblefield, former Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University in the US, who, in late 2015, was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of Derrick Johnson, a 29-year-old man with cerebral palsy. The Stubblefield case drew widespread international attention because of the concerns it raised and the debate it generated about disability and sexuality. Of particular concern is the way that sexuality was represented across a range of media. We argue that the dominant representation was a desexualising of disabled people, especially people whose bodies, communicative styles, intimacies and sexualities did not fit the “norm.” This case is typical of the narrow and oppressive ways in which disability and sexuality are represented in media––media which are, in new ways in the so-called digital age, highly influential in social and public life. Furthermore, we argue that the concept of consent is extremely problematic when applied to many disabled people, especially those who are non-verbal.
(disability, sexuality, media, communication, consent, Anna Stubblefield case, disability media, media representation, sexual rights, sexual citizenship)
