The Work of Disabled Identities in Intimate Relationships

This article explores the experiences of disabled individuals in intimate relationships, highlighting the emotional labor and psycho-emotional disablism they face. It summarizes the stories of 25 disabled individuals and their intimate connections.

Title of Article/Video/Movie
“The Work of Disabled Identities in Intimate Relationships”
Name of Writer/Speaker
K. Liddiard
How Does the Topic Connect to Me?
The article illustrates a thematic explanation regarding the account of the past and the
present relationships of men and the women who are disabled. The article sheds light on the love
experience and the sexual intimacy of the disabled couples. The topic connected to me in the
factor that what the work actually means for the disabled people and their argument in the form
of disablism.
Main Ideas in the Book Chapter:
The article or the chapter of the book illustrates on the explanation of the men and the
women who are disabled, highlighting on the intimacy stories of 25 people who are disabled,
their information, their inmate connections that are explored in the context of the emotional field
(Liddiard, 2013). The main idea of the book chapter considers the experience of the action of the
disabled people towards the love relations. It furthermore illustrates the reimagination of the
disability towards the material, political, structural and personal dimensions that the people with
disability experiences on the inside as well as the outside.
Details:

The various issues and the oppressions that are mostly experienced by the disabled group
of individual in their intimate and sexual living have been overlooked mostly by the wider fights
for their rightful places within the public and the civil life. The article defines the issue of
psycho-emotional disablism by the words of Thomas as something socially endangered
determining the emotional well being (Liddiard & Slater, 2018). The author of the article
illustrates that the context of the social oppression tends to occur by the experiences of being
excluded from the physical environments by the means of routine objectifications and the
voyeurism executed by the non disabled people through the means of internalized oppression.
There has been many of the complex individual works that is organized by the disabled people in
their daily living schedule.
Connections to our class readings/lectures:
The psycho emotional dimensions and the performances and the work of the identity of
the disability have been long explored within the study of the disability. The concept of
emotional work and labor have been seldom applicable towards the performance and the
experience of the disabled people. The context of the work of the emotion generally tends to take
many of the forms and variety regarding proper functioning. These tend to have consequences
that are both positive and negative.
Summary of Movie/or Book Chapter:
25 people who are disabled, together with one non-disabled individual were interviewed
for the research paper. The informants and the participants of the survey were sampled through
the method of snowball and purposive sampling techniques (Ignagni et al., 2016). The main

emphasis for the data collection was on the information regarding the intimate and sexual
relationship stories. The stories classified by the chapter of the article explaining the work and
the labors of the women and men who are disabled among the numerous point of locations for
their intimate relationships. The article summarizes the fact that work of the informants are
produced both at the intersection of the sexual and gendered identities and the context of
disability that majorly emphasizes the value of the appreciated connection and the psycho
emotional dimension of the context of disability.

Reference
Ignagni, E., Fudge Schormans, A., Liddiard, K., &Runswick-Cole, K. (2016). ‘Some people are
not allowed to love’: intimate citizenship in the lives of people labelled with intellectual
disabilities. Disability & Society, 31(1), 131-135.
Liddiard, K. (2013) The Work of Disabled Identities in Intimate Relationships. Disability and
Society, 29 (1). pp. 115-128. ISSN 0968-7599
Liddiard, K., & Slater, J. (2018). ‘Like, pissing yourself is not a particularly attractive quality,
let’s be honest’: Learning to contain through youth, adulthood, disability and sexuality.
Sexualities, 21(3), 319-333.