In the Spanish context there are different theoretical and practical models discussing about a definition of sexual assistance and its potential beneficiaries and providers. This article analyzes them critically, revealing the fantasies supporting them and the ghosts they are projecting with the objective of bringing the disputes that revolve around the theme. The analysis is based in two ethnographic research carried out between 2012 and 2015, which involved participant observation developed in different projects of sexual assistance, and 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with the main actors involved. The organization of the content is based on three perspectives about sexual assistance: the first one deals with the vision of prostitutes who consider themselves sex assistance workers, and the other two - the model of “erotic connection” and the model of “auto-erotic” - gathers the projects that have a specific proposal for sexual assistance. The purpose of this article is not to provide a con ceptual definition of the sexual assistance, but to analyze it as an ethnographic category, articulating the different social meanings that actors give it. The defined models respond to analytical categories constructed from native elements recurrence. The results obtained bring the backbones of the debate on sexual assistance and the main local disputes that occur. The relevance of this reflection gives us clues about the design and social organization of the affective-sexual life of people with disabilities, and about our cultural construction around the body, desire and sexuality.
Keywords
sexual assistance, functional diversity, disability, body, sexuality, ethnography
