Search

Politics is frequently understood through the body. However, liberal political theory and, therefore, American law focus upon a question of rights, rather than of needs. Due to this, liberal political theory occludes vulnerability and the facticity of bodies from political thought. Embodiment, a given but also an uncomfortable facet of life, pushes us to consider how political and legal decisions impact people's lives. It necessitates that political and legal decisions are made by considering the ways in which they can and will effect all people, not just the independent, autonomous, and rational actor. This legal embodiment theory allows us to make visible the ways in which marginalized people's bodies frequently are the site of specific restrictions. The paper begins with a discussion of embodiment and care ethics. It then progresses to gender-affirming healthcare and abortion and how embodiment arises in those legal discourses. Then, it moves to a discussion of queer sexuality in education, engaging with ideas of disgust. Finally, it broaches the question of the State's role when it comes to legal embodiment. If we consider embodiment through a lens of a shared good, then legal embodiment ought to prioritize decisions which will promote caring relationships between the individual's body and the State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trait Selective Abortions (TSA) have come under critique as a medical practice that presents potential disabled infants as burdens and lacking the potential for meaningful lives. This paper, using the author's background as a disabled person, contends that the philosophy underpinning TSAs reflects liberal society's lack of a theory of needs. The author argues for a care ethics based approach informed by disability analyses to engage with TSAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Far-right online communities are the subject of much research. However, the impacts of this research on the researcher themselves have gone under-analyzed. I examine how my own research of the far-right affects both my physical body and mental health. I interrogate what it means when understandings of space change due to embedding oneself in online communities. This article argues that the process of purposeful and intentional breaking down of boundaries is a process of reshaping the space in which I exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sex education rarely covers disability. This paper uses autoethnography to reflect on how being epileptic impacted the author's understanding of sex and sexuality. The paper grapples with disability narratives and internalised ableism surrounding sex. The paper seeks to engage with conceptions of who sex education is for, and how disabled people are treated when it comes to sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]