A Review Of The Outsiders Club :: Free Essay Writer

A look back article of "The Outsiders parliamentary law" Screened on BBC 2 in October 96MA sheepskin Disability StudiesINTRODUCTIONI decided to write a review on the well-disposed group known as The Outsiders. Thegroups main mystify is to enable incapacitate adults to form personal relationships,including specifically sexual ones (Shakespe ar 1996), all with each former(a) orwith non- disable members. The group has been in existence for several(prenominal) years,and has attracted a great deal of attention, including reaction from present andformer members, and in extra from within the Disabled Peoples Movement .Many of the comments make by former members of the group live with been critical,sometimes highly condemnatory, and frequently made by disenable women (Rae 1984).In both my professional and private depicted object I am interested in sexuality anddisability, and specifically in the ways in which disabled adults can establishmeaningful relationships with an other(prenominal) people (disabled or on-disabled). Issuessuch as sexuality and the forming of relationships are on a regular basis discussed inmainstream youth and community work, but rarely with regard to disabled people(which is not surprising since disabled people are ofttimes absent from mainstreamgroups). Indeed, it is only in the last few years that disabled peoplethemselves have been in the forefront of this debate, and the leadingprotagonist have usually been activists within the wider disability movement,who are soundly aware of other social and sexual issues such as gender, sexism,homophobia, and so on. The Outsiders was set up (and is still fronted by) anable bodied woman who for many years has been well known in the controversialarena of sexual liberation and soft-core pornography, so it is hardly surprisingthat her group has both supporters and critics. A recent BBC-2 documentalseries (From the Edge) devoted a whole programme to the group, and this essaypicks up the main themes that were aired.SEXUALITY AND DISABILITYMorris (1989) writes "once we first become disabled we are usually denied anyform of sexual identity." It is certainly neat that among the many negativestereotypes of disability some of the most commonly held views are that disabledpeople are non-sexual, or sometimes asexual beings, or that they are likely tobe attracted only to each other.THE OUTSIDERS CLUBThe Outsiders Club was established by Tuppy Owens in 1979. Tuppy, a self-proclaimed stalwart nominee for sexual equality, and a trained sex therapist.She conceived the idea of a social group for disabled adults after her closemale friend, Nigel, became blind. Fearful of the act of disability everafflicting her own life - and blindness in particular - she became determined to