The Onion AV Club reviewed Quid Pro Quo this week, the film about apotemnophilism aka disability fetishism. Specifically, people who desire to become disabled, often through surgical intervention.
Typically we hear about these "wannabes" through news stories about elective amputation of a limb, but in the case of this movie, it can also involve paralysis/spinal cord injury.
I feel conflicted about this movie, because I am of the opinion that any depiction of wheelchair users as sexual is a good thing. Really, any depiction at all will do, because we are largely an invisible minority to a lot of people, and the only way to change that is to raise awareness. So for me a feature film that explores sexuality within a disability context is a move in the right direction, no matter how awful the subtext of the film might be.
I seriously doubt that the film will drive home what wannabes are really seeking, which I believe to be permanent victim hood. There are a lot of people out there even without this "affliction" who desire the stereotype attention of persons with a disability - the public attention, the pity and the reverence for "making it despite the odds". I would imagine that it's an attempt to present their internal pain in a permanently external way, much like a cutter does, though in this case it is a desire for that pain to be known to the world in an unmistakable way. For certain, these wannabes are perhaps the worst offenders when it comes to seeing the disabled as people since their idealized image of life with a disability is wholly grounded in stereotypes.
Whatever the root of this and the solution for society, I don't much care. I just want more wheelchair users in the public eye.
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