Censorship, cultural expectations and transformations: The role of genitalia in disabled lives

Abstract

Deploying theories of power and stigma, this article aims to discuss the perceptions of genitalia and the cultural expectations of genital transformations and representations in consideration to disability. Through a transcription-based content analysis of the audio description (AD) used in Series 10 of Naked Attraction (2016–present), this article aims to explore how the media shapes expectations and feeds into the problematic and powerful impact that audio description can have upon disabled individuals. This article focuses upon the representational transformations of genitalia from the corporeal into the visual, then, delving deeper, from the televisual to the audio, using this double layer of transformation to look at the deeper complexities at play. By AD not using the correct terminology for genitalia, an inclusion/exclusion or us/them dualism is formed based on power relations which make assumptions about disabled individuals. These assumptions are that disabled individuals either do not want or do not have the capacity to consent to sex. This links to the infantilization and patronization that disabled individuals are subjected to within wider society. A further aim is to interrogate how these expectations are perpetuated through televisual representations to create power relationships, and the impact this has upon disabled individuals. The shielding/censorship of genitalia from disabled individuals is evident in AD on television shows such as this, which contains euphemisms for genitalia rather than accurate descriptions. This feeds into the desexualization of disabled individuals and conflation and confusion between asexuality and disability alongside the dismissal of disabled individuals as potential sexual and life partners. This article shows how ableism runs through society perpetuated by the media and the effects this has on the disabled community.