A review by kleonard
Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire by Alice Wong

3.0

I always want to like disability activist Alice Wong's edited collections more than I actually do. The idea here--an anthology of writings on disabled intimacy, in its many varied forms--is brilliant and needed, but many of the essays included didn't do much to help me learn more about the ways the disability community--of which I am part--thinks about intimacy. There's a lot of demanding and in many ways the valorization of taking rather that giving, and the idea of intimacy often seems very transactional--but often one-sided--for many writers. It's a discomforting read, and I've been working through my thoughts on it slowly, trying to process and make sure I am being open in my reading and my empathy and compassion, and still, I feel that there's a a gaping hole in the center of the book, where disabled caregivers might have been more highlighted, and the intimacy of disabled families.