Disability, Gender, Bodies and Boundaries

This book outlines the ways that disabled women experience unwanted touching and intrusive questions when navigating public space. Using the framework of feminist disability studies, this book takes an intersectional approach to fill a gap in the understanding of how disability and gender are factors in the nature and impacts of unwanted touching. It draws on research from over 70 women and non-binary people to elicit stories and examples, with some people living what some described as a ‘smaller life’. The methodology was a co-production with a disability activist. This book develops the new concept of Ableist Intrusions to investigate the nature and impacts of such experiences. It considers how non-disabled people should interact with disabled people in order to respect boundaries and bodies.

Hannah Mason-Bish is Associate Professor in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Sussex, UK. For 15 years, Hannah has built a reputation as an expert on hate crime policy, with a particular focus on gender and disability. Co-editing the first collection of chapters on disability hate crime in 2013, she has always been at the forefront of connecting how aspirations of legislation must consider issues of intersectionality and victim experience.