Sexualities and (Dis)Abilities: (Re)Valuing Being Sexual Humans through Body Narratives

This study reads narratives that focus on the representations of (dis)abled bodies in sexually charged spaces in a bid to (re)value these bodies as they negotiate their humanity as well as their capacity to give and receive pleasure. Sex rarely occurs in the same sentence with deformity, probably, because a lot of people tend to define individuals with disabilities/deformities using their challenges, denying their existence as sexual beings. It is not uncommon to perceive the challenged as asexual or not needing sexual validation, yet, people with disabilities, just like everybody else, are wired sexually. From presenting deformities as grotesque and the reason to discontinue sexual relationships to giving the idea that deformity comes with some kind of sexual perversion, several African writers have made atheir contributions on the sex life of the physically challenged/deformed. A lot of these writers de-emphasize sexuality but dwell on the deformity of these characters in ways that suggest that the characters crossed the line of acceptability when they became sexual. Fewer texts pay attention to the re-validation of the personhood of bodies with deformity in ways that affirm their sexuality as well as their ability to give and receive pleasure.