Experience

Publications

• Wired for Interdependency: Push Girls and Cyborg Sexuality

  Feminist Media Studies

  In this article, I will look at the real-life cyborgs in the Sundance Channel’s reality series, Push Girls (2012--present), and examine how looking at these female cyborgs through the Disability Studies concept of “interdependence” can give use a new window into their relationships. I am particularly interested in how these female cyborgs, who view their wheelchairs as extensions of themselves, present/discuss their own sexualities. In general, we do not live in a society where women speak freely about the messiness associated with their own sexuality. However, the females in this show speak frankly about these issues. Catheters, positioning, lubrication, and abortion are just a few things that these female cyborgs openly discuss. This article will explore how looking at these real-life cyborgs from the perspective of interdependency might give us a new window into female sexuality, as well as looking at the ways that a disability identity might help one opt out of what Naomi Wolf calls The Beauty Myth (1991).