Disability and porn

Wheelchair Dancer writes about disability and porn because of a new Spanish porn film called Breaking Barriers that is making some news. Most of WCD's post goes on to discuss "pretenders" and "devotees" (a subject about which, specifically, I have no well-formed opinion), but she does say this about disability and porn:

I'm conflicted.

On the one hand, I think it is important for PWD to be recognised as fully sexual beings. Ellen Stohl accomplished some of this work when she appeared in Playboy in 1987. And wasn't there a fuss! From the disability community -- everything from exploitation to not enough wheelchair -- and from those who oppose porn on principle. On the other hand, while I usually maintain a fairly sex positive attitude and I can understand, even sympathize with the arguments that interpret sex work as a positive choice for some women, I know that sex work is not always positive, that the viewer cannot tell from looking at the image, and that in every day life not every sex worker's rights are protected. This limits my ability to go for porn without many, many reservations.

Except for the understatement of that last sentence, I agree completely with WCD -- I'm conflicted. As for Encarna Conde, the 45-year-old disabled woman who stars in the Spanish film, she appears to have had a positive experience:

"It was very pleasant, though I was somewhat cowardly," says Encarna. Unusually for a porn film, however, Breaking Barriers ends with a serious conversation between Encarna and her producer. "Disabled women have to take steps forward and one should always be happy if one breaks a barrier," she says.

As an undergraduate, I took an elective course called "Human Sexuality" taught by an old guy who had about fifty years experience as a couples' counselor. This was the late 1980s and much of the course was on AIDS and safe sex, but the main focus of all topics was good communication between sexual partners. We listened to a panel which included transsexuals that was very informative. And we saw a film of a man and woman having sex in order to provide, the professor said, a visual so that everyone was absolutely clear on what penis-in-vagina sexual intercourse actually involves. I've since learned from a couple social worker friends that there are, in fact, married people out there who think they have been having PIV sex but have been doing it wrong.

In that same educational vein, especially since strangers and acquaintances have sometimes bothered with questions about disability and sex (and pregnancy and orgasms, etc.), I'm conflicted. Does mainstreaming disabled people into pornography help disabled people? Does it help disabled women be seen as less asexual? Does it educate nondisabled people at all or does it just create a bigger fetish market?

I remember being conflicted about Ellen Stohl 20 years ago too. Of course, porn is an extreme example but I'm skeptical when disabled women stoop to objectifying themselves anywhere in order to participate fully in society as females, which I think is what happens in the Ms. Wheelchair pageants. It can happen in photography too, whether in Playboy or some other forum, if the expression of feminine beauty follows cultural expectations of what is beautiful. The Raw Beauty Project, as a whole exhibit, manages to express individuality without catering too much to mainstream beauty expectations, though I think they downplayed disability to walk that line. I'd love to see the whole exhibit.