SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response

SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED AND ORIGINAL NURSING PAPERS Unformatted Attachment Preview 1 Questions of Consent Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. Rethinking Competence and Sexual Abuse In Looking White People in the Eye, Sherene Razack wonders how feminists can “talk about the social context of women with disabilities without reifying the othering that marks this context in the first place.”1 More explicitly, Razack asks us how we can discuss sexual assault and abuse without recognizing that the very labels and management of disability make this abuse more likely. In discussing cases of abuse involving women labeled with intellectual disabilities, Razack outlines how to recognize the social circumstances surrounding sexual abuse, even when commentators frame the victim as “enjoying the experience of sexual abuse,” thereby perhaps denying the occurrence of abuse.2 Similar to Anne Fausto-­Sterling’s discussion on the medical and resulting social meanings mapped onto sexuality, Razack’s work describes how nondisabled (primarily feminist) thinkers imagine situations of abuse for developmentally disabled individuals, especially in situations in which gender and disability categories collide with notions of pity, “othering,” and a sense of special circumstances.3 Additionally, Razack questions how the predominance of sexual abuse for women with intellectual disabilities can be addressed without making the victims symbols of humiliation.4 Acknowledging social forces such as ableism, racism, classism, and sexism that portray women with intellectual disabilities as warranting special treatment is the first step in understanding the interplay between these same systems in order to dismantle them.5 This chapter explores how to reimagine and reframe legal and journalistic narratives of sexual abuse of women with intellectual disabilities6 by using crip theories that reveal gendered, heteronormative, and ableist assumptions about sexuality and pleasure. I examine the American case of Kalie McArthur, a young white woman with an intellectual disability who was sexually abused by her white male 23 Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. 24 Questions of Consent Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. peer-­educator, in order to consider how stories about “victims” in cases like this can expose and dismantle interlocking systems of oppression existing in situations that result in abuse and assault.7 McArthur’s case and the discourse around it are instructive because of the ways in which notions of pleasure, competence, morality, and disability are used to frame the woman as a vulnerable victim and the peer educator as a predator. I argue that expressions of pity, largely unproblematized in feminism, limit the necessary respect for disabled women in abuse cases.8 The utility of assessing competency based on intellect is also discussed in order to deepen feminist disability studies analyses of the interplay between categories of gender, disability, race, and sexuality. Finally, this chapter discusses possible ways to theorize sexuality for people with intellectual disabilities, being mindful of (but not restrained by) the high prevalence of sexual abuse and complicated notions of consent. The Case of Kalie McArthur On June 30, 2006, conservative radio and talk show host Glenn Beck introduced a segment on his CNN program the following way: “My faith teaches me that the handicapped are the most valiant among us. My gut tells me, after I volunteered for Special Olympics, that when we get to the end, when we go see God face to face, we’re going to realize that we’re the retarded ones, not those who are fighting with mental disabilities.”SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response 9 Beck, who has a daughter, in his words, with “special needs,” took it upon himself to lead a crusade so that what happened to Kalie McArthur would not happen to other disabled children. Beck’s outdated and problematic language reflects a charitable approach to disability, where agency can be covered by a discourse of “bravery” and “inspiration.” For Beck and many others, abuse enacted against disabled individuals has to be countered and eliminated. Later in the same show, Beck said to a guest that “there is nothing that will put you at the gates of Hell faster than raping a child or raping a handicapped person.”10 In Beck’s moralization of disability, the “us”/“them” dichotomy is established with disabled individuals who are unconditionally moral, innocent, and childlike needing to be protected from sexual assault. Beck’s use of “special needs” and “retarded” also further creates differential power dynamics that seem to warrant a reinforcement of protectionism and sexual ableism. It is precisely Beck’s moralization Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. Questions of Consent 25 and simplification of situations such as Kalie McArthur’s that make a more nuanced reading of cases of assault for intellectually disabled individuals difficult; in this chapter I will attempt one such nuanced reading. Kalie McArthur was eighteen years old in 2004. She was in a special education class at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs. As part of the policies of School District 20 (D-­20), students in special education classes are given the option of being assigned a peer-­trainer. During the 2004–­2005 school year, McArthur was assigned to a fifteen-­ year-­old freshman peer-­trainer, Robert Harris, to assist her in various janitorial tasks at the school. While not the focus of this chapter, the quality of McArthur’s education is suggested by her assignment to janitorial work in the school. Instead of learning what her peers were learning, she was cleaning the school.11 On September 14, 2004, the football coach at Rampart, Charles Yost, discovered McArthur and Harris interlocked in a position, McArthur on top of Harris moving back and forth. Both Harris and McArthur’s pants were pulled down and Harris was wearing his boxer shorts. At the time of the incident, McArthur was supposed to be cleaning dirt off the floors at the school, but instead she was in the stairwell with Harris.12 McArthur and Harris were left alone without adult supervision, even though McArthur’s Individual Education Plan called for adult supervision at all times.13 Yost immediately took both McArthur and Harris to the principal, Gil Bierman. Yost considered their activity to be sexual and that Harris was abusing McArthur, and Harris was charged with having unlawful sexual relations with a minor, although he was minor himself and younger than McArthur. During the court case against Harris, it was determined that Harris did not rape McArthur, but rather sexually assaulted her.14 Sexual assault refers broadly to unwanted sexual contact whereas rape refers to forceful vaginal, anal, or oral penetration. Harris pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawful sexual contact and served fourteen days in juvenile detention. He also was required to register as a sex offender and undergo behavioral therapy.15 Following Harris’s criminal trial, McArthur’s parents sued D-­20 and McArthur’s teacher for negligence in a civil case. SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response The suit was settled in 2007 for an initial payment of $1.2 million. The initial payment covered the family’s legal fees and set up a trust fund that provides a monthly payment for McArthur’s personal assistance services Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. 26 Questions of Consent and other living expenses. The monthly payment is guaranteed for McArthur’s lifetime, resulting in a total settlement estimated at $4.3 million. During the negotiations for this civil case, a professional for the school district claimed that the experience for McArthur was “pleasurable, not traumatic” and that it “ignited her female desires.”16 While not denying that the teacher was negligent for leaving McArthur alone with Harris unsupervised, the school district attorneys argued that the incident between Harris and McArthur was not sexual abuse but rather a gender-­reaffirming event that satisfied her sexual desires. The claim that this abuse reaffirmed her “female desires” illustrates how patriarchy depends on seeing masculine aggression as a “gift” that awakens female sexuality. Razack discusses how histories of sexual violence must be overcome before women with intellectual disabilities can be seen as vulnerable; their sexual virtue has to be established in the face of sexual violation.17 Razack’s observations are important to consider because women with intellectual disabilities are often subjected not only to experiences of sexual abuse and assault, but simultaneously rendered incompetent to participate in sexual relations. By extension all (or almost all) sexual activities are automatically assumed to be assault—­they have to be proven otherwise in criminal and legal mechanisms, as such sexual “virtue” has to be claimed. D-­20 and the experts it hired chose to say that this experience with Harris incited her female instincts and that she transformed from a girl to a woman in the stairwell. In an interview given by Harris and his grandmother, it is suggested that McArthur asked for and/or enjoyed the sexual activity, or even that she assaulted Harris.18 It seems illogical that McArthur, the same young woman presented as having the “mind of a child,” would not only become a predator but also enjoy the experience with Harris. Regardless, we need to be clear that even if McArthur enjoyed the experience, it does not mitigate the unequal power dynamics and assault that she also may have experienced. What interests me most in this case are the ways media representations and court documents describe both McArthur and Harris. Rather than determining who is at fault and who is a “victim,” I am analyzing how various discourses of competence, gender, sexuality, consent, and labels of disability are presented in the case. For example, Harris is described as having been suspended multiple times, being absent eighty times during the school year, and having a 0.0 grade point Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response Questions of Consent 27 average prior to 2004.19 Additionally, McArthur’s lawyers describe the boy as having been arrested for shoplifting, not “exercising good judgment,” and as a “hormone-­filled teenage boy.”20 In an interview with The Gazette, Harris said that after being convicted as a sexual offender, he was “bitter and depressed.”21 Harris contends that he was merely a “curious adolescent” who had a momentary “lapse in judgment” but ultimately did nothing wrong that day at Rampart High School. At the time of the incident Harris says he was “going through depression,” and he is now on antidepressants, according to his grandmother.22 Harris implies that he is as much a victim as McArthur in this situation, punished for his sexual curiosity and unstable mental health. In the same interview with the Gazette, Harris provides a revealing look into his psyche and perception of the events with McArthur. Many of the statements by Harris in this interview are typically repeated by those convicted of sexual assault and do not garner him much sympathy from readers. For example, at one point in the interview Harris remarks that he “made her [McArthur] feel like a queen” and that he “did nothing but good to her.”23 He continues, “Me and Kalie know exactly what happened. I cared about Kalie, and I’m more than sure she cared about me.”24 Despite the other representations of Harris as a poor student and predator, he contends in this interview that their relationship (as peer-­trainer and otherwise) was based on mutual feelings, and that nothing inappropriate or illegal happened between the two of them. In fact Harris’s grandmother makes the most provocative comment in this interview by saying that “he [Harris] was a child just as much as she [McArthur] was a child. To me, she could’ve been the one raping Robert.”25 Harris’s disability is not meaningfully discussed in any of the media representations. Instead, he is presented largely as a hormone-­filled predator, seeming to confirm gendered assumptions of (white) teenage boys. The contention that McArthur raped Harris might upset the sensibilities of many commentators, but in this case, Harris’s age and gender come into direct conflict with McArthur’s competence and disability status. McArthur’s disability status interacts with her gender identity while his impairment seems a leftover addendum to the event, not central to the act, largely because of the representations of his gender and McArthur’s disability status. Kalie McArthur and her family are the subjects of a series of articles in The Gazette from January 12 to January 15, 2008. The three Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. 28 Questions of Consent articles trace the family’s move to Alaska, describing what life is like for McArthur since Harris sexually assaulted her. The first article in the series, “Innocence Undone,” states that experts think “her [McArthur’s] childlike mind has since descended into a dark place from which it may never emerge.”26 The articles explore the behavioral and personality changes that McArthur has undergone since 2004. In all the articles, interviews, and court documents, McArthur’s voice or experiences are often interpreted or expressed by other people: her family, lawyers, Harris, and cable news reporters. In this series of articles, McArthur is not directly interviewed, but the author, Brian Newsome, says that almost four years after the incident McArthur frequently asks, “Do I have to take my clothes off?” and repeats, “I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid.”SOC 451 California State University Aspects of Human Sexuality Reading Response 27 The representational contrast between McArthur’s mitigated voice and Harris’s interview is striking. The comprehensive picture painted by these articles and the additional media representations describe McArthur as the stereotypical childlike adult with an intellectual disability, unable to live, work, or function independently. McArthur is rendered completely vulnerable and dependent, incapable of consenting to sexual relations with Harris. As much as Harris is vilified, she is pitied. She is not given the opportunity to speak about her experience in either the trials or the journalistic accounts of the events. Both McArthur and Harris are selectively referred to as adults and children throughout the pieces—­McArthur is an adult when the experience of abuse was supposedly “enjoyable,” but childlike in her actions, comprehension, and life since the event in the stairwell. McArthur is chronologically older than Harris. Theoretically she could be charged with unlawful sexual contact with a minor. Even though her chronological age makes her an adult, her disability supersedes adulthood.28 Her disability positions her as “cognitively younger,” illustrating the infantilizing mechanism in this discussion. Harris is an adult insomuch as he is found guilty of the assault, but simultaneously childlike by representations of vulnerability by his grandmother and his own statements to reporters. The man–­boy and woman–­girl shift in language helps to illustrate that these two individuals are as much actors as well as pawns in the representations and ensuing controversy around this case. McArthur’s lawyers describe the situation between Harris and Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/csun/detail.action?docID=2011451. Created from csun on 2020-02-10 12:24:10. Copyright © 2015. University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. Questions of Consent 29 McArthur as “akin to placing a wolf in charge of a defenseless lamb and leaving the two alone.”29 The wolf (Harris) in this metaphor is the actor while the lamb (McArthur) is the recipient of the action. Although as observers we will never quite know what happened in the stairwell, there remains some question about McArthur’s exact role in the situation. Unlike the Glen Ridge case, in which high school athletes raped and assaulted a girl with an intellectual disability multiple times using baseball bats, broomsticks, and other sticks while being cheered on by their friends, McArthur’s story is not as definitive. The Glen Ridge case was framed with consent as the central legal question. The prosecution contended that the victim could not consent because of her disability, while the defense argued that the girl’s prior sexual history was evidence that she was a willing participant.30 We know that Harris was convicted of unlawful sexual contact with a helpless victim. We also know that Harris held power over McArthur because of his gender and role as peer-­educator, even if he does not think so. And we know that McArthur’s daily behaviors have changed since the event and its aftermath. We also know that Harris was diagnosed with a mental impairment, depression, at the time of the incident. McArthur’s impairments have been used to explain her vulnerability, but Harris’s impairment has not received the same attention, other than to imply that Harris would have to be “sick in the head” to assault McArthur. While Harris’s depression does not excuse or vindicate his actions, I would argue that recognizing his impairment might do more to explain his reasoning than does defining him simply as a hormone-­ filled boy. In the court brief filed by McArthur’s parents, she is described as “loving like a toddler without a sense of boundaries” and as “functioning at the level of approximately a 3 or 4 year old.”31 Likewise, McArthur’s father has been quoted as saying that his daughter “used to be passive and affectionate, [but] now she’s aggressive, especially toward males. She could end up hurting someone, maybe a little boy.”32 This threat of future violence is not commented on in the coverage of the case. It only serves as a marker of the gravity of the situation and a consequence of victimization, one that might be replicated at the hands of McArthur on a younger boy victim. For McArthur, her IQ and supposed levels of functioning are all widely reported on as well as her supposed inability to act in rational ways.33 It seems that a Gill, Michael. Already Doing It : Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency, University of Minnesota Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/c … Purchase answer to see full attachment Get a 10 % discount on an order above $ 100 Use the following coupon code : NURSING10

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