Shooting Back and (re)framing: Challenging Dominant Representations of People with Physical Disabilities in South Africa

The visual representation of people with physical disabilities has a history which is fraught. Disabled bodies have been variously portrayed as abnormal or abject, or else simply concealed. This mirrors social representations concerning the sexuality of disabled bodies which dictate that bodies which defy societal standards for normality cannot be sexual. People with physical disabilities are desexualised, a process sustained and maintained by their symbolic representation in the public imagining. Our chapter explores the ways in which photovoice can be used by people with physical disabilities in the global South to challenge dominant representations of their sexuality. Their images offer a valuable challenge to the moral and social agendas underlying societal thinking about and representing of bodies, sexuality and difference particularly relevant to the global South.