Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability [Paperback]

Victoria A. Brownworth (Editor), Susan Raffo (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1999

In looking at the intersection of sexuality and disability, this nonfiction anthology challenges readers to confront how America deals with difference. Writers represent a broad range of disabilities (chronic fatigue syndrome, manic depression, cerebral palsy) as well as a variety of racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Informative, defiant, upbeat and occasionally humorous, these essays, interviews and poems unblinkingly tackle a wide range of illnesses and medical conditions: birth defects, genetic and autoimmune disorders, AIDS, chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome, mental illness, deafness and recovery from accidents and assault. Marginalized by their sexuality and their disability, the contributors (who include established writers like Patricia Nell Warren and Nicola Griffith as well as novices) explore the complications that arise at the intersection of these two identities. Faced with homophobia within the healing professions, lesbians are often reluctant to seek medical intervention. Families sometimes blame an illness on a woman's sexual lifestyle. In most jurisdictions, a lesbian has no legal right to make medical decisions for her ill or injured partner, as Karen Thompson's eight-and-a-half-year battle to gain guardianship of her lover, Sharon Kowalski, so poignantly points out. Some of the problems come from within the lesbian community as well. "I am not the strong, athletic, independent woman our subculture says we are all supposed to be," declares one essayist. Some contributors, such as Vicky D'aoust, who is deaf, do not consider their conditions disabilities while others champion in-your-face activist groups like "Not Dead Yet." Many feminists who have long fought for sexual and reproductive freedom may bridle at the anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia agenda of many contributors. Clearly, lesbians have no unifying political position, but they inhabit every imaginable type of body.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When award-winning editor, journalist, and writer Brownworth became disabled, much of her former life was rendered inaccessible. Striving to fight the isolation she felt, as well as learning to come to terms with her disability, she searched in vain for a literature that spoke to her experience as a disabled lesbian living in the United States. Her latest work, coedited with Raffo, an activist and writer (Queerly Classed: Gay Men and Lesbians Write About Class), seeks to fill this gap. In this unique offering, each contributor eloquently describes her reality as a member of a doubly marginalized group in a phobic society. Although the contributors vary in ethnicity, socioeconomic level, and type of disability, they share one trait: They have not allowed physical or mental disability to prevent them from living to the fullest. Highly recommended.AKimberly L. Clarke, Univ. of Minnesota Lib., Minneapolis
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (October 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158005028X
• ISBN-13: 978-1580050289
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Victoria A. Brownworth is a Pulitizer Prize-nominated journalist and author of "Day of the Dead," "Too Queer," "Film Fatales" and "Rock Hudson: A Biography" and editor of the award-winning "Coming Out of Cancer," "Night Bites" and "Lost in America." Her essays, stories and columns have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, the Advocate and OUT magazine, as well as over 50 anthologies. She's reviewed for Publisher's Weekly, Booklist and a plethora of other newspapers, magazines and journals. She mentors young inner-city writers, has written several award-winning independent short films, including "Mondays" and "but would you take her back?" and teaches writing and film at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Read her political blog at www.victoriabrownworth.com, read her columns at www.curvemag.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars diverse anthology, January 29, 2000

By 

Kelly Mack - See all my reviews

This review is from: Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability (Paperback)

Browthworth and Raffo have succeeded in collecting queer women with disabilities to contribute to an excellent grouping of experiences and points of view. The diversity of the authors lends itself to an amazing range of lifestyles, choices, and events. Each author brings originality and clarity to their opinions partially formed by who they are and how society interacts with them. I found each piece added to a larger harmony and that the differences in ideologies and experiences enhanced my knowledge of women with disabilities. Society could truly benefit by making this book a prerequisite for entering the world.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thoughtful and provacative, December 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Restricted Access: Lesbians on Disability (Paperback)

As a fan of Victoria Bronworth's writing and a lesbian with a disability, this anthology is not only long-overdue, it is compelling and diverse. It includes essays from women with all disabilities including mental, AIDS and CFIDS, as well as different backgrounds and perspectives.