I recently read an article in which the author relates an experience in which a male priest makes the sign of the cross on her forehead as he passes her while leaving her niece’s confirmation service. She is offended in part because a man touched her without her permission and in part because she is treated like a child. I cannot relate at all to the first offense. It is not a matter of lack of perspective… I was molested as a teenager as well as in an adult dating relationship. The types of sexual abuse I experienced were extremely violating and designed to take advantage of my naivete, empathy for the other person’s sexual needs, and inability to see. I learned a great deal from these experiences about boundary-setting and when to trust and not trust…
My reaction to the vignette in the article is that numerous people, male and female alike, touch me without my permission. People feel it is their prerogative to touch me, because in their judgment I need to be touched for whatever reason they think is ok: to be pulled across a street, to be turned in this direction, to be pushed into a chair, to be patted on the head because they’re sorry I am blind, etc. There are numerous kinds of touches that, for me, are violations. Inappropriate touch is not limited to sexuality. Because people use touch to communicate with me, it is important that this is understood. If someone intends to do something as benign as show me the way to the ladies’ room and they are furious, it will come through in the way they touch me. So the touch can become hostile and inappropriate, unintentional though it may be. On the other hand, a person who uses touch intentionally to communicate to me that they feel that I am disadvantaged because I am blind (and they are superior because they are sighted) is using touch inappropriately. Inappropriate sexual touch, like inappropriate emotional touch, is not limited to a person’s gender, relationship to me, etc.
So I do not react to any of this by thinking, “Great! A man touched me without my permission.” I would think, “A person touched me without my permission.” And I wouldn’t necessarily interpret it in light of my sexuality. I would interpret that scenario totally in light of disability issues. Likewise, I would interpret a sexual encounter in terms of its sexual nature unless there were elements that were clearly about disability issues, e.g. the person used my blindness to design the encounter, etc.
A good deal of disability studies in religion is based in body imagery and abstract ideas. Again, I can’t relate to a lot of this. I think that most of this is because I live with disabilities that have great functional and social impact. I understand the body theology; but I think that something is missing from disability theology and I cannot quite put it in words… We have books on inclusion ministry (mostly geared toward including people with autism and related disabilities). We have books on body theology and even a growing fervor for the concept of presenting God as disabled… (I have a theological problem with this.)
I have read quite a bit of Black theology, and it resonates deeply with me. Much of it deals with poverty, self-esteem, anger, reconciliation with the dominant culture, etc. Some of my thoughts: What does the Bible say to people who have access laws but still cannot get hired because employers have such enduring perceptions about disability? My most enduring question: What is the “good news” for people whose lives do not change, who don’t have daily bread? How do the poor in America relate to a Church that does much poverty work overseas but often fails to understand the realities of poverty in America. … So my heart really beats in a very different direction than what other people are doing with disability studies and theology/biblical studies.
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