Quell’oscuro (s)oggetto di desiderio. Normatività di genere e sessualità nell’esperienza di persone con disabilità

Asexual, neutral gendered, eternal child, angel, obsessive: the sexuality of people with disability is still considered in terms of deviance from normalcy. The processes of desexualization act on disabled bodies in a plurality of ways that are strictly involved with the normativity attending the construction of masculinity and femininity. Meanings, concepts, and actions related to the expression of intimate and sexual life – as desire and pleasure – will be discussed through the narratives of Italian men with physical impairment and health care professionals. In this frame, disability appears as an opportunity to rethink sex, bodies, and the relations among them, calling into question the dichotomic relationship between sexuality and disability.