Performing the Pain: Opening the (Crip) Body for (Queer) Pleasures

Abstract

With a view to interdisciplinary dialogue(s) between queer theory and disability studies, this article discusses the work of Bob Flanagan and his partner Sheree Rose. Specifi- cally, it focuses on their queer S/M practices as a strategy of negotiating disability/pain, but also as a practice redefining notions of (disabled) em- bodiment.

It also discusses Flanagan and Rose’s queer/crip politics as an opening for “desiring disability.”

Keywords

• concepts of pain
• disability studies
• queer theory
• pleasure