Bethany Stevens: Sex and Disability Expert and Activist

"This is what love looks like for a wheelchair user, to travel across the world to climb some stairs for someone."

This time, we dive deep with Bethany Stevens, MA, JD. Bethany is a wheelchair using white cis (AFAB), pronouns (she/her), queer sexologist and sociology doctoral student in Sociology at Georgia State University. She’s writing her dissertation about the politics of pleasure within the history of the disability rights movement in the United States, particularly focusing on discourses of disability resistance and pleasure politics presented in the Netflix and Obama production teamed documentary Crip Camp (2020). Her other research and activism has centered on ableism impacting sexual and reproductive health of disabled people, prevention of sexual violence, transability, and the radical possibilities of sexual communication.

Episode highlights include:

Getting one's dicks in a row

Libra Bethany was (unsuccessfully) engineered to be a Scorpio by her Pisces parents (!?)

The importance of extending eroticism beyond the genital zone (for EVERYONE!)

A regrettable threesome with a law school ambassador

Reenacting the Odessa Steps scene from Battleship Potemkin as an act of love

Using bungee cords to make sex toys accessible

Relevant links:

Bethany's instagram, where you can view the Corona Look of the Day Project

Show email: [email protected]

Our theme music is "Euphoria" by Decek.