TITLE: Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor and Sexuality
AUTHOR: Teresa Milbrodt
PUBLISHER: University Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 978-1496838926
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Humor is a difficult thing to document. It’s a common saying that the easiest way to get a person to forget every joke they’ve ever heard is to ask them to tell you one. The reticence towards sharing jokes with people outside of an in-group only grows when the jokes are of a bawdier nature. Teresa Milbrodt, in her 2022 book Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality published by the University Press of Mississippi, shared her experiences documenting sexuality and humor within the disabled community.
Milbrodt, from the start, is careful to explain to the reader the complicated nature of the disabled community. Divisions that exist only deepen when humor is brought into the picture. Some people might find solidarity, comfort, and identity in the reclaiming of harmful labels such as ‘cripple’ or ‘crip’ while for others such words remain slurs to be avoided at all cost. Others might be fine self-identifying in such a way within the community, but would take quick offense should anyone outside of it appropriate such language. The lesson is clear from the start: identity and humor are both difficult things, but there is always information that can be learned from questioning and studying both.
Milbrodt herself, as the book goes on, shares her own experiences and reckoning with disability. She is monocular, a congenital condition that stemmed from being born prematurely, and between each chapter shares a bit of her experience with cataracts and navigating the medical system. Over the course of the book the reader is witness to her evolving concept of embodiment and how the world around her continues to change. While working with the community showed her how adaptable people often are, and how little they tend to miss what they either never had or lost, she admits her own unease at the notion of fully losing her sight while also knowing that, in the end, she would adapt.
The book takes the reader to online forums, stand up shows, burlesque performances, and old blogs. The reader is introduced to people with congenital disorders as well as those who have newly joined the community contending with diagnoses like MS. The community is wide and vast, and Milbrodt does an excellent job exploring those differences. The jokes shared and performances described highlight a vibrant, rich community that dares the temporarily able-bodied world to stare at it, to get to know it, and to consider altering their own perspective and previously held beliefs. It is a wonderful and enlightening read, and I look forward to what Milbrodt might do next.
AUTHOR: Teresa Milbrodt
PUBLISHER: University Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 978-1496838926
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Hilary Wilson
Humor is a difficult thing to document. It’s a common saying that the easiest way to get a person to forget every joke they’ve ever heard is to ask them to tell you one. The reticence towards sharing jokes with people outside of an in-group only grows when the jokes are of a bawdier nature. Teresa Milbrodt, in her 2022 book Sexy Like Us: Disability, Humor, and Sexuality published by the University Press of Mississippi, shared her experiences documenting sexuality and humor within the disabled community.
Milbrodt, from the start, is careful to explain to the reader the complicated nature of the disabled community. Divisions that exist only deepen when humor is brought into the picture. Some people might find solidarity, comfort, and identity in the reclaiming of harmful labels such as ‘cripple’ or ‘crip’ while for others such words remain slurs to be avoided at all cost. Others might be fine self-identifying in such a way within the community, but would take quick offense should anyone outside of it appropriate such language. The lesson is clear from the start: identity and humor are both difficult things, but there is always information that can be learned from questioning and studying both.
Milbrodt herself, as the book goes on, shares her own experiences and reckoning with disability. She is monocular, a congenital condition that stemmed from being born prematurely, and between each chapter shares a bit of her experience with cataracts and navigating the medical system. Over the course of the book the reader is witness to her evolving concept of embodiment and how the world around her continues to change. While working with the community showed her how adaptable people often are, and how little they tend to miss what they either never had or lost, she admits her own unease at the notion of fully losing her sight while also knowing that, in the end, she would adapt.
The book takes the reader to online forums, stand up shows, burlesque performances, and old blogs. The reader is introduced to people with congenital disorders as well as those who have newly joined the community contending with diagnoses like MS. The community is wide and vast, and Milbrodt does an excellent job exploring those differences. The jokes shared and performances described highlight a vibrant, rich community that dares the temporarily able-bodied world to stare at it, to get to know it, and to consider altering their own perspective and previously held beliefs. It is a wonderful and enlightening read, and I look forward to what Milbrodt might do next.