From alien bodies to neutral bodies: processes of gender identity denial in people with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

Over the years, there has been a progressive recognition of the sexual rights of people with physical disabilities, while the bodies of people with intellectual disabilities remain invisible. The impairment of what is considered normative communicative abilities opens the way to ancient fears, linked to an explosive, perverse, diabolical sexuality, as it lacks rational control and mature intellect. The most direct way to exorcise these fears is to de-sexualize and de-gender the body, which is no longer seen as alien but as neutral. The aim of this paper is to investigate the mechanisms that make invisible the bodies of people with intellectual disabilities, who are deprived not only of their sexual rights, but also of their gender identity. This analysis will be conducted by discussing the underlying cultural device: the reduction of disability to the biological substrate of impairment, as well as the social construction of gender to biological sex