[Synapse elist] Devotees, fetishists etc

[ju90]

> - is part
> of the desire evoked in transability, also about wanting to redesign,
> reshape the body or, perhaps, apply the technologies which
> 're-enable', 'augment' the body as with Body Integrity Identity
> Disorder (BIID), where people have elective amputations performed,
> sometimes in order to have prosthetics fitted


I've had quite a lot of correspondence with orthopaedic fetishists in  
response to my website 'My Not-So-Secret Life as a Cyborg', and for  
them the augmentation is certainly all. In contrast, there have been  
a couple of very interesting documentaries about 'devotees' (people  
who want to have sex with/be amputees) made by people who've had  
amputations - such as the Australian 'My One-Legged Dream Lover' -  
and they've found that this group seem to be much more fixated on  
'absence' than on augmentation, and on skin rather than metal or  
plastic.

I think it's important to underline, though, that 'augmentations'  
also restrict. I variously wear wrist, thumb and a spinal brace, and  
while they extend my movement because of my particular impairments,  
they also restrict it. No one without an impairment that braces  
compensate for would find their body augmented by using them, despite  
the fact that I do. The same is true for my wheelchairs and scooters,  
as I was reminded on Saturday when bogged down in a bluebell wood.  
That suggests that restriction is of overwhelming importance to  
orthopaedic fetishists, and it is that restriction rather than the  
augmentation that they find particular attractive about disability aids.

> I float in a world where on the outside I am
> seen as able-bodied, but internally the wiring is
> gibbled.

I'm always pleased to see Disability Equality training materials  
pointing out that few of us 'look disabled' - 'visible disability'  
most often means 'visible disability aid'. The augmentation is taken  
to stand for the impairment, or even to take over from the person  
using it - only last month a front-of-house worker shouted to a mate  
'is there any room for the wheelchairs?' when myself and my  
girlfriend appeared at a theatre. The fact that you 'can't tell'  
immediately on meeting someone whether they have an impairment or not  
serves to underline the fact that there is no dividing line outside  
of social constructions of disability.

>  The body in its present form and with its present
> functions is inadequate. The body has always been impaired.
>
I don't agree that the body is inadequate - no technology has ever  
got close to reproducing our various abilities, let alone overtaking  
them - but the nature of biological life is that it is constantly in  
transition, and individual forms are continually degrading even as  
they are growing. As a collection of systems, the 'design' of some  
parts of the body are certainly much poorer than others, however  
superior the overall form is to technological alternatives.