In this chapter, we focus on the complex and often misunderstood intersection of disability and love as portrayed in the news. Using Google News as our primary source, this study spans a 3-year period from 2020 to 2023, meticulously examining the top 100 articles surfaced by search terms “disability,” “sexuality,” and “love.” In our analysis we aimed to better understand mainstream media’s framing of disability in the context of intimate relationships. Historically, societal narratives have oscillated between portraying individuals with disabilities as either desexualized and child-like or as dangerously hypersexual and deviant. In this chapter, we challenge these binary perceptions by exploring the multifaceted representations of love and sexuality within the disabled community as depicted in the news. By examining media portrayals, this chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of how love, sexuality, and disability intersect in contemporary narratives.

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Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring Representations of Disability and Love in the News

  • Alan Santinele Martino,
  • Naomi Eastman,
  • Eleni Moumos,
  • Freda Okoma

摘要

In this chapter, we focus on the complex and often misunderstood intersection of disability and love as portrayed in the news. Using Google News as our primary source, this study spans a 3-year period from 2020 to 2023, meticulously examining the top 100 articles surfaced by search terms “disability,” “sexuality,” and “love.” In our analysis we aimed to better understand mainstream media’s framing of disability in the context of intimate relationships. Historically, societal narratives have oscillated between portraying individuals with disabilities as either desexualized and child-like or as dangerously hypersexual and deviant. In this chapter, we challenge these binary perceptions by exploring the multifaceted representations of love and sexuality within the disabled community as depicted in the news. By examining media portrayals, this chapter contributes to a deeper understanding of how love, sexuality, and disability intersect in contemporary narratives.