The Christian Science Monitor calls it “a perverse psychological drama about able-bodied people who yearn to become disabled,” and gives it a C-. Premiere gives it three stars, and calls it “a dark romance.” The Los Angeles Times says it’s “unexpectedly moving.”

Quid Pro Quo, in limited release, is the story of a public radio reporter who is investigating a story on able-bodied people who seek identity and eroticism in amputation, paralysis and paraplegia. The film by writer-director Carlos Brooks stars Nick Stahl as the reporter, who is himself partially paralyzed, and Vera Farmiga as his love interest, an attractive blonde who confesses her overwhelming desire to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

From the New York Times review by Stephen Holden:

Ms. Farmiga’s performance might be described as radioactive – her character, in which she uncovers many conflicting emotional layers, has a glow-in-the-dark phosphorescence that is sexy, but also scary. In Fiona’s mind the medical paraphernalia of paralysis has an erotic power similar to that of the accoutrements of sadomasochism. An elaborate brace, for instance, is the ne plus ultra in sexy lingerie.

After spinning out metaphors of paralysis and eroticism in its characters’ feverish imaginations, “Quid Pro Quo” decides at the last minute that it has to explain everything. The moment it pulls away from the fantastic, it lands with a thud.

The movie trailer is here.

In an interview with Premiere, actress Vera Farmiga says she based her performance on her reading on the Internet about people with “Body Integrity Identity Disorder”, which she says is authentic.

Yvonne K. Fulbright, the ‘Sexpert’ for Fox.com, says it’s time for society to reexamine and change its attitudes about sex and disability. “People with disabilities can be very sexual — much more than we give them credit for,” she says.

Fulbright offers a list of stereotypes that need to be challenged. Among them:

• People with disabilities aren’t sexual beings.
• People with disabilities are undesirable.
• People with disabilities shouldn’t have sex.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In a precedent-setting case, the Illinois Appellate Court on Friday denied a bid to have a mentally disabled woman sterilized against her will, ruling the woman’s guardian didn’t prove the procedure would be in her best interests.

The woman, identified in the opinion only as K.E.J., is not capable of raising a child due to her disability, the court acknowledged in its 3-0 ruling.

“Nevertheless that need not justify tubal ligation” when there are “less intrusive and less psychologically harmful [birth-control] alternatives,” Judge Joseph Gordon wrote for the unanimous panel.

‘How I faced up to a deep-seated prejudice against disabled people’

[UK] Guardian columnist Stewart Dakers explores the complicated emotions he experiences when two acquaintances who have disabilities get married, buy a house and have a child. He describes Dave and Sue as having epilepsy and other conditions he doesn’t understand. “… A generation ago, they’d have been called ‘retards’.”

Dakers says he and other neighbors felt uneasy when the couple married, thinking it “improper, unseemly,” and “a step too far.” Their disapproval grew when Dave and Sue had a child. “No good can come of it … shouldn’t be allowed,” some said.

At this point, Dakers writes, he began to dislike Sue — and he sees that dislike as a positive development.

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From Libraryjournal.com, a review of “Autistics’ Guide to Dating: A Book by Autistics, for Autistics and Those Who Love Them or Who Are in Love with Them,” by Jody and Emilia Ramey.

Married couple Jody and Emilia Ramey are both on the autistic spectrum and often collaborate as disability advocates. While sharing their own story of courtship, they clearly address for other autistics such issues as eye contact, social skills, and personal space in relation to meeting someone and fostering a relationship that could evolve into a committed romantic love. Each chapter ends with a call to action, suggesting ways that caregivers and parents can help.

Jody and Emilia have explored what a successful relationship requires of them individually and as a couple; their sensible strategies for overcoming communication and social deficits result in an insightful and accessible guide for autistics, their loved ones, and anyone looking to become a part of a couple.

Julie Fernandez, best known for her role in [BBC's] The Office, always dreamed of love and marriage. But she feared her brittle bones would prevent her from ever having a physical relationship …

Writing in the [UK] Guardian, actress Julie Fernandez offers frank talk about her sexual awakening as a girl with brittle bones, a genetic disability that results in extremely low bone density.

“The truth is, my relationships have always been affected by the fact that I am a wheelchair user, and they always will be. I am not a romantic. I don’t kid myself on that subject. And I know it is harder for disabled women to be in relationships than it is for disabled men. You see a lot of disabled men going out with able-bodied women, while the reverse is much less common. I feel it is because women look at life differently. We tend to have an attitude of acceptance, even of mothering. And image is less of an issue for us than it is with men.

“There have been times when I thought I was going to be single for the rest of my life. I thought, no one is going to love me. But the spiritual side of me told me that wasn’t going to be the case; that it was all waiting for me, waiting for the right moment and the right person. You can’t get away from the fact that being disabled does make finding and keeping a relationship much harder. But who said sex, on wheels or otherwise, isn’t complicated anyway? “

Fernandez is a star on the BBC comedy The Office, and previously starred in the soap opera series Eldorado.

Links:

• An interview of Fernandez by the BBC disability website Ouch: “There’s a disabled lady in our office”
• A column by Fernandez in the UK Guardian: “The right to access: Other countries give their disabled the freedom to contribute.Why don’t we? asks Julie Fernandez”
• BBC News story: Office star’s call for disabled roles
• Fernandez’s website

From the (Canada) National Post:

Kyla Harris, great-granddaughter of celebrated Canadian painter Lawren Harris, opens a new exhibit in Toronto called Access Sex. The show presents her in a series of provocative and highly sexualized photographs that also display her wheelchair and medical equipment. Harris says she wants to challenge society’s habit of ignoring people with disabilities.

“People skim over a room, they see someone in a wheelchair and they don’t register them as a person, because they may not think they’re sexually available,” she said this week from her art gallery. “I think it is because of how people with disabilities have been misrepresented or not represented.”

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