Publicación: A Very Public Private Matter: A Case Study of the Post-Institutional Control of Disabled Sexuality
Fecha
2024
Autores
García-Santesmases Fernández, Andrea
Bahner, Julia
Sanmiquel Molinero, Laura
Editor/a
Director/a
Tutor/a
Coordinador/a
Prologuista
Revisor/a
Ilustrador/a
Derechos de acceso
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Licencia Creative Commons
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.es
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Springer
Resumen
Introduction
This article explores how sexuality is conceptualised and managed in a Spanish residential care unit for recently injured people. The institution operates under the banner of independent living, a key belief of the international disabled people’s movement, which champions self-determination, autonomy, and control over their support.
Methods
A focused ethnography was conducted between September 2021 and February 2022, with semi-structured interviews and participant observations with the residential care unit’s service users (n = 13), staff (n = 12), and managers (n = 7).
Results
Managers and staff organise the support in ways that prevent service users’ autonomy, privacy, and intimacy, contrary to the independent living philosophy. Service users’ behaviour, relationships, and whereabouts are constantly monitored and controlled in a gendered, desexualising manner. When sexuality is discussed, it often concerns sexual assistance—a service offered by some organisations in Spain—effectively redirecting attention to a therapeutic approach and shifting focus away from institutional responsibilities towards an individual (male) issue.
Conclusions
Critical disability studies and organisational theory inform an analysis that finds the institutional policy for managing sexuality is ‘strategic ignorance’: sexuality is simultaneously silenced and controlled in the name of professionalism. This post-institutional way of organising disability services is highly gendered and desexualising, resulting in ‘anti-independence’.
Policy Implications
Residential care managers and staff should be trained to work ethically and professionally with sexual rights. Training should be based on the independent living philosophy, which empowers disabled people to take control over their lives.
Descripción
The registered version of this article, first published in “Sex Res Soc Policy (2024)", is available online at the publisher's website: Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-024-00986-5
La versión registrada de este artículo, publicado por primera vez en “Sex Res Soc Policy (2024)", está disponible en línea en el sitio web del editor: Springer, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-024-00986-5
Categorías UNESCO
Palabras clave
people with disabilities, gender, sexual rights, sexual assistance, disability services, Independent living, residential care
Citación
García-Santesmases, A., Bahner, J. & Sanmiquel-Molinero, L. A Very Public Private Matter: A Case Study of the Post-Institutional Control of Disabled Sexuality. Sex Res Soc Policy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-024-00986-5
Centro
Facultades y escuelas::Facultad de Derecho
Departamento
Trabajo Social