Can Disability Be Sexy?

[The Straight Story]

Can Disability Be Sexy?

A series of photographs spoofing the often racy advertisements from clothing retailer American Apparel is questioning traditional ideas of beauty in a most provocative way.

The photos are of Jes Sachse, a 25-year-old Canadian college student with a rare genetic condition known as Freeman-Sheldon syndrome. She has unique facial features, a curved spine and her right leg is a bit shorter than her left, but Sachse is not lacking in attitude.

The series dubbed “American Able” includes 13 recreations of actual American Apparel ads. In one called “Tight,” Sachse appears in a leotard to strut her stuff before an oversized window. In another ad called “Workout,” Sachse is shown wearing nothing more than a headband and green shorts.

The work produced by Sachse’s friend, photographer Holly Norris, 21, is appearing in Toronto subway stations this month on more than 270 electronic screens as part of a photography festival.

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/05/14/can-disability-be-sexy/8048/

[ixion]

1. heh... fetishes come in all shapes and sizes... so, yes.

I would have to say.

[Taverner]

25. I think its just the Kinsey Spectrum

Just a variation, no different than the markings on a fruit fly

[kctim]

2. Yep

Everybody has a special 'kink' that gets them going.

[Berry Cool]

4. So now, merely to have a disability is to be condemned to having sex only with fetishists?

Who are turned on by your body's particular formation and not by who you are as a person?

Nice. :sarcasm:

[kctim]

5. The OP is about sexy, not having sex

you are the one who equates that to no more than "having sex."

[Posteritatis]

8. And you're the one saying someone needs a "kink" to be attracted to a disabled person. (nt)

[kctim]

12. No, I did not

I said everybody HAS a kink.

[CreekDog]

26. Wow. This is not where I expected this thread to go...

:rofl:

[miscsoc]

13. "Who are turned on by your body's particular formation and not by who you are as a person?"

If that's fetishism most people are fetishists to some extent.

Mind you AA is a fucked up company run by a misogynistic anti-union bastard and the campaign seems pretty exploitative.

[Junkie Brewster]

9. My husband's hearing disability is part of what gets me going

I love him very much, and I find him sexy as hell, deafness and all. Is that a special kink? What else is a special kink? My husband likes olive skin tones (I'm half Hispanic). Is that a kink?

One of my best friends likes older lesbians (convenient, because she's gay- she's always liked women who are about ten years older than her). Is that a kink, and if so, which part? The lesbian part, the older part, or the older lesbian part?

My boss is about 5 tall, and she likes tall men. I mean REALLY tall, like 6'2" or more. Like she needs a step ladder to kiss them. Is that a kink?

My dad thinks my mom is sexy. He thought she was sexy before she got cancer, and now that she has it, he makes it a point to kiss her scars and her chemo port and he tells her how much he loves her, out of control cells and all. Is that kinky?

[kctim]

21. Lol

IMO, a 'special kink' is nothing more than something that draws one to another. Attitude, cosmetic, physical etc... Curves and tats do it for me :)

[Junkie Brewster]

3. I don' know about a disability per se, but the disabled can be sexy

They can also be sexual.

I'm married to someone with a hearing impairment, and I think he's sexy as hell.

[KamaAina]

6. Not just yes but HELL YES!!1!

As it happens, my all-time favorite human being is a degreed sexologist as well as a person with a disability. Her thoughts on the subject may be seen here:

http://www.cripconfessions.com

Another great resource is Berkeley's own Sins Invalid:

http://www.sinsinvalid.org

[Tailormyst]

7. Of course they can

Sexy means different things to different people. I find most athletic/model types, especially the male ones, to be decidedly unsexy. Other folks drool over the shirtless hunk with a six pack.

[Junkie Brewster]

10. Well that's just their kink

I like big guys, like John Goodman. I guess that's my kink.

[miscsoc]

15. Doing anything saturday night

*Flutters eyelashes, takes bite from enormous pie*

edit: oh wait i see you're already married to another rotund casanova

[Junkie Brewster]

16. Smile

Sure, I'm taken, but let me tell you, I'm not the only one out there whose kink involves the ample man.

[muffin1]

14. Yep.

Shit, I think Steve Buscemi is sexy. That statement always gets weird looks from my friends, but what are you gonna do?

[uppityperson]

11. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For those talking of "fetishes"

fail.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[slampoet]

18. There's a play about that Subject in DC this WED. it's "The Thing That Ate my Brain, ...Almost"

http://2010vsafest.blogspot.com/2010/06/does-this-go-go-bikini-make-my-butt.html

Does This Go-Go Bikini Make My Butt Look Disabled?


Knee high boots with 3 inch heels. Chartreuse. Fierce walk. Music blares. Lights up. Fringe flies. A 6 ½ inch scar slices my back from the nape of my neck to the bottom of my shoulder blades, but you barely notice--if at all. Welcome to my world.



http://2010vsafest.blogspot.com/2010/06/future-events-such-as-these-will-affect.html

[Lilith Velkor]

19. No, but disabled people are. Especially autistics.

That's the real reason for our social awkwardness - we're so incredibly desirable that everybody else gets all flustered.

;)

[KamaAina]

20. +3.141592635!

I never thought of it that way before. Mahalo (thank you)! :hi:

[pipi_k]

22. Men with no heads, arms, legs, or torsos really turn me on n/t

[Berry Cool]

23. Everybody has their tastes...their preference for certain body types, hair colors, etc.,

although some people are pretty flexible even in that...they don't have particularly strong feelings about whether a person is tall or short, muscular or not, blond or brunette.

But all that stuff is a matter of taste. And it's not usually taken to mean that we'd be sexually turned on by ANYONE who is tall, or blond, or has a mustache. Those are just little things we like...enhancers, not deal breakers...little things that, although they might initially attract us, certainly wouldn't figure largely in the establishment of a deep and enduring romantic or love relationship with someone. But if we're involved with a person, or are initially attracted to them and then become involved, we might call them "sexy" things.

"Fetishes" are a whole different animal. No one would really seriously claim to have a "blonde fetish" or a "muscle fetish." We reserve the concept of "fetish" for what we consider a really weird or bizarre or unusual sexual turn-on...one that "normal" people wouldn't really want to confess to...one that has nothing to do with anyone as a person but is fixated primarily on an object or an action. It's something that gets a particular person horny, not something that inspires love or the desire to form a relationship.

So why is it that if a person has a body different from most other people's, as the woman in the OP pictures does, we assume that the only kind of person who could be attracted to her is a fetishist? Why do we assume that the only kind of person who could ever possibly find her sexy is the kind of person who would find her body interestingly "kinky" from a sexual standpoint? Doesn't she have as much right as anyone else in this world to be able to find true love with a person who finds her physical appearance sexy in a normal way as opposed to a fetishistic way, and would like to have sex with her within the context of a loving relationship, as opposed to someone who only wants to do her because the thought of "doing it with a genetic freak" turns him on?

That's the point I was trying to make.

[Odin2005]

24. My friend with cerebral palsy is certainly very attractive!

It seems like everyone tries to hit on her! :rofl: