A Look Back: "Doin' It: Sex, Disability and Videotape"

I love end-of-the-year retrospectives — they help to frame the year that was and I catch up on great stories and bits of culture I missed the first time around.

Today during a look back on Eight Forty-Eight, a local Chicago Public Radio show, I was reminded of a story I had intended to blog when it first aired in April — an interview with members of the Empowered FeFes, a group of young women with disabilities sponsored by Chicago-based Access Living.

The Empowered FeFes collaborated with Beyond Media to create “Doin’ It: Sex, Disability and Videotape,” a documentary released this year that addresses society’s general unwillingness to acknowledge that people with disabilities have sexual needs and desires.

“We have to let people know that because in their mind they’re thinking oh, she’s in a chair, she can’t do that, she can’t date, she’ll never get married,” said Veronica Martinez, a member of the Empowered FeFes.

The film also covers issues ranging from reproductive rights and the history of forced sterilization to sexual health and domestic violence.

“The motivation,” Susan Nussbaum of Access Living told Eight Forty-Eight, “is for young women and girls with disabilities around the U.S. to have a very affirmative image about their own sexuality, the thing I wish I had had myself at that age.”

Listen to the interview here, and check out a great three-minute clip from the film below.