This paper will speak of, women with spinal cord injury (SCI) and the changes in their sexual function in both physical and emotional. It is common for women with spinal cord injury to be unsure as to whether or not they can give or receive sexual pleasure. Some people may experience a loss of self-satisfaction, confidence and self-worth. As time continues to pass, women who experience spinal cord injury begin to express great appreciation for sexuality. This paper will explain the opportunities for sexual exploration among disabled women, particularly the young, were it can be very limited. I will cover the general reduction in life choices and its impact on self-esteem, which in turn affects sexuality by making the tendency of a woman with …show more content…
An example would be that some women experience orgasms through sexual fantasy or in an erotic dream. The second issue is although an induvial with SCI doesn’t have any sensation in the area below the waist, there are various erogenous zones in their upper body they can focus on. The third issue, is that orgasms have generally been defined by nondisabled people in their observations of other nondisabled people. Society defines that by; women experiencing orgasms the climactic sexual moment during clitoral, vaginal or anal stimulation; basically if your body doesn't let you do any or all of these things, apparently you can't have an orgasm. However, this is not true, orgasms are nothing more (or less) than a total body experience of intense pleasure; often preceded by a buildup of intense sexual and bodily tension, followed by a completely relaxing sensation in your body and/or …show more content…
If a woman is in a wheelchair, she will have spastic (or extremely tight) muscles around her vagina, have no sensation in her genitals, thus she will enjoy types of sensation other than penetration, as there are many different ways she may have sex. Thus, people with paralysis or spinal cord injury usually become very sensitive just above the area of paralysis - can experience orgasms by having this area stimulated. Many women feel sexual pleasure when their ears, neck, lips, or breasts are stimulated or caressed. Touching, caressing, kissing, giving oral sex (stimulating your partner's genitals with your mouth), having your breasts, ears, neck, anus (or any other body part that turns you on) caressed or stimulated can all be incredible sexual experiences. Others who have no sensation in their genitals can feel orgasms in different parts of their bodies. For example, women who have spinal cord injury can still reach the point of climax by stimulating their cervix or clitoris, which they then feel in their upper bodies (Source: The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability, ed. Kaufman, Silverberg and Odette,
In her essay “On Being a Cripple”, Nancy Mairs presents her audience with an honest inside view of her life and perspective as a cripple, a word she openly uses to define herself. She brings her world to us by discussing a wide variety of things including language, family, and humor, and how these all relate to her life. Through various stories and insights, she allows her readers to gain an understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities. She examines the public’s view of the disabled, as well as the views they have of themselves, and compares them to her own. She makes it clear that she is not to be defined solely by her disability. In discussing honestly her views, as well as
When my older sister, Molly, was ten years old, she was a temporary cripple. Molly went through a pretty big surgery that would stop her from tripping over her pigeon toed legs. While living a couple months in her wheelchair, an uncle of ours came to visit. His warm welcome to my sister was pushing her into a corner, locking her wheelchair, and calling her a windowlicker. Thankfully, my sister has tough skin. She took what others would find scarring, all as a joke. It is hard not to be reminded of the unexpected response my sister gave while reading the essay “I AM a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs. Within this essay, the author describes her life as a cripple suffering with MS. While sharing her thoughts and emotions (gerund) from
Nancy Mairs is the author of the controversial essay On Being a Cripple. Here, she writes of her experiences dealing with the degenerative disease, Multiple Sclerosis, on a daily basis as well as her preferences on the proper terms are for what to call a person who is disabilities. Although she uses the term crippled to describe herself, she believes that no one should use it to describe another. Her argument, though it stands on unstable grounds, is effective in bringing attention in sharing one point of view of what the correct terminologies to call people with disabilities are. On Being a Cripple also has a second purpose that is raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Mairs’s uses many generalizations that are overall untrue and
This paper will outline sexuality at different life stages, and as a sexual therapist I will coach an adolescent girl with a boyfriend who is pressuring her to have sex; an elderly couple with a wife exhibiting a renewed interest in sexual activity and a unwilling husband; and finally a handicapped male that has been paralyzed since he was four years old.
(THIS WAS AN INFORMATIVE SPEECH I DID FOR MY COM220 CLASS ON THE STAGES OF SPINAL CORD INJURY RESEARCH. IT ACTED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO MY PERSUASIVE SPEECH ON THE BENEFITS OF STEM CELL RESEARCH)
Many people these days take their health and body for granted. Imagine losing the ability to walk suddenly due to an accident or a disease. This is exactly what had happened to Nancy Mairs, author of the essay “On Being a Cripple.” She herself had lost her ability to walk normally when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis or MS, a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system. Her essay talks about her life and dealing with MS. The purpose of the essay is to show how being crippled affects your life and how to stay positive and deal with it.
The student that I will focus on for this work sample is an eighteen year old African American female whose exceptionality is Cerebral Palsy, as well as speech and language problems; which are mild. For the sake of this paper, we will call her Mary. Mary is mobile via a motorized wheelchair that she operates with a joystick in her right hand. Mary has little muscle mass and the muscles themselves are stiff, as a result of the disorder and her inability to walk and being in a wheelchair fulltime.
In the essay “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs reflects her life as a “cripple” because of MS, and her recognition of it. Mairs purpose is to inform individuals on her perspective on being a cripple. She describes how she views herself and how others look at her. Mairs use of word choice, tone, and examples of her life experience provides a better understanding to the goal of this essay.
The writer of “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs, describes her life as difficult, but not entirely worth the cure. The writer struggles with multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system, in which had weakened the left side of her body into wearing a cane. She experiences society pressures, false interactions, and many hard situations of having a body that hardly works. However, she carefully names herself as a “cripple”, and remains proud with being just that. The author never had any control over receiving this disease, however she had enough control in order to keep living with it.
Coping with a disability many would assume that sexuality is no longer a factor or want. However, this is another result of societal barriers and stigmas people place on individuals with disabilities. Sexual healing as Mitchell mentioned, should be part of the rehabilitation process. Mitchell states that he learned more from his peers and mentors whom have acquired disabilities and I find this interesting. He learned and gained the most knowledge from others in his situation and I believe many are educated this way similarly to young children learning societal norms. The social learning theory is a great example of Mitchells closing analysis about men with disabilities. Men apply what is learned socially throughout life. After an individual becomes disabled attitudes prior to and after the disability should be addressed in treatment. For Mitchell learning from others that he could understand and relate to was a form of
How would people act or feel if their body is slowly weakening? Nancy Mairs, The author in the story “On Being A Cripple” shows that being a cripple does not make you different than anyone else. She also shows the reader that discriminating yourself will not just make it worse but it will be a disaster. To her she is a normal person but to others they see a “disabled” or “handicapped”.By using her experience on being a cripple, Mairs effectively draws the audience into her argument and shows them the good and the bad side of her condition. She uses many strategies that will make it easy for the readers to understand her essay. Mairs uses vivid descriptions, experience and her emotion to describe her life as
The central nervous system is what connects the brain to the muscles of the body. When a patient has an injury to the spinal cord, movements in certain parts of the body will be affected based on the location of the injury. If the injury affects hand motion then many day to day tasks are affected. This literature review seeks to understand how an injury to the spinal cord impacts movement, and what has been done so far to help those affected by spinal cord injuries.
A review of the literature regarding spinal immobilisation has been undertaken using databases for PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, OVID and Cochrane EBM. Reviews were electronically searched using the subject headings “spinal injuries”, “spinal immobilisation” and “management of spinal injuries”. The results generated by the search were limited to English language articles and reviewed for relevance to the topic. The aim of this literature review is to compare and contrast the views on spinal immobilisation and to achieve a better knowledge of evidence based practice.
Another key factor is society’s acceptance of masturbation for males, where it is seen to be deviant for females, since females are constructed as being the nurtures and therefore not promiscuous. Males feel comfortable in practising masturbation, thus knowing exactly what feels good for them and how to achieve this. Some females on the other hand find masturbation to be wrong or not lady like. Therefore, many women do not know how to achieve an orgasm. If a female is unable to bring herself to orgasm, it is very unlikely her partner will be able to as well, even if he knows how to bring other partners to climax.
Spinal Cord Injury Ontario is a charity devoted to helping people living with spinal cord injuries and other physical disabilities. They run many events every month to help fundraise money so that SCI can offer free programs such as peer support and enhancing independence to assist people living with a spinal cord injury’s. However, after attending SCI’s annual London Roll & Bowl event we felt as if there was a lack of advertising and event awareness. We noticed that there was little to no advertising about SCI at the event and there was nothing posted about the Roll & Bowl event on their Facebook or Twitter page and that many of the participants at the event have been attending for many years. As a result of low advertising we feel as if SCI