‘Cripping' intellectual disability and sexuality in media representations

People labelled/with intellectual disabilities are sexual beings and are entitled to the same rights to sexual expression as non-disabled people. Yet, people labelled/with intellectual disabilities are commonly infantilised, perceived as ‘child-like’ and ‘innocent’. Consequently, they are often denied opportunities to learn about sex, sexuality and relationships, see themselves represented in mainstream media as sexual beings, form intimate relationships and experience forms of sexual expression. In this chapter, we highlight dominant understandings of the intersection between intellectual disability and sexuality by examining recent examples of disabled people’s representation in popular media and how these representations are understood both by the individuals being represented and mainstream audiences. Drawing on crip theory and the practice of cripping, we consider whether and to what extent these representations work to crip intellectual disability and sexuality.