the body positivity movement needs to start moving hard into including disabled bodies and this is what I mean by that. yes, it was a good step forward to change the rhetoric from “your body is a good body if it meets these arbitrary aesthetic standards” to “your body is a good body because it completes these tasks for you” (ie: walking, eating, laughing, hugging, etc.) but that rhetoric is still not fully body positive, because it excludes bodies that do not do these things. the same as saying how we need to “focus on healthy bodies not skinny bodies” sounds good at first, but it completely misses the point that unhealthy bodies deserve to be appreciated too. disabled bodies are still beautiful and still fundamentally good, not because “your body is kind to you so you should be kind to your body”- because not everyone’s body is kind to them. but all bodies are still good bodies because they are what houses your soul. your body is what allows you to exist and live your life in whatever way you live it, and for that reason, it is a good and beautiful body. your body is what your loved ones see when they look at you and the love they feel for it as an extension of you makes it a good and beautiful body. your body doesn’t have to look a certain way or behave a certain way to be good. it is good just for being here.

Normalize Disability in Fictional Relationships.

Normalize the use of mobility equipment while interacting with a partner.

Normalize the need to remove braces, prosthetics, etc. before intimacy.

Normalize being unable to lift a partner or perform acrobatic sex moves.

Normalize assisting a partner with transferring from a mobility device to the bed.

Normalize the idea of disabled bodies as capable of being sexy.

LISTEN: Woman In A Wheelchair Gives Powerful Response To A Rude Question About Her Sex Life

So begins Kelsey Warren’s riveting spoken word poem called “My Body.” As a disabled woman, Warren discusses the rude stares and even ruder questions she constantly receives. 

Watch the full poem here. 

Tell ‘em.

i want science fiction and fantasy to engage more critically with concepts of beauty, desirability, and attraction as it pertains to dehumanized (but human) bodies. people of color, (and black people specifically), disabled people, trans women. which of our bodies are...