Sex, Lies and Sisterhood : Staging Intersectional Feminism

Sex, Lies and SisterhoodStaging Intersectional Feminism Becky Gold (bio) Keywords disability, sexuality, performance As we collectively work through the ways in which we hope to prompt a reimagining of feminist futures both onstage and offstage, acknowledging those women whose stories have scarcely been represented in these spaces is imperative. While the impact of discrimination and the silencing of marginalized communities are far from contemporary issues, I suggest that the inclusion of these women's stories on our stages offers a means of working toward a feminist future that is intersectional and inclusive of women from all backgrounds and experiences. As an emerging disability arts scholar, my entry point into this collective conversation around staging feminist futures stems from a disability perspective, specifically, the lack of representation of neurodiverse women in both the performing arts and within greater feminist discourse. In order to contextualize my thinking around this topic, I will be referencing a new play titled Sex, Lies and Sisterhood. This new work, through both its written text and its creative process, highlights a number of salient intersections connected to feminism, disability, and representation. I believe this forthcoming work offers a pragmatic example of the ways in which theater can push against patriarchal structures of silencing the voices of marginalized women while also highlighting how feminist and/or disability practices of care can be utilized to perform into existence a feminist future that is desirable, relatable, and inclusive of those women whose stories are so often left at the margins. Sex, Lies and Sisterhood (hereafter SLS) is a new work in development by performers Krystal Hope Nausbaum and Morgan Joy, who together make up the Toronto-based performance collective Hope and Joy Theatre. Nausbaum is a theater, film, and television actor who has Down syndrome, [End Page 116] and Joy is her housemate, as well as a theater artist, educator, and support worker. Nausbaum and Joy are both in their early thirties and have found that despite their perceived differences in ability, the ways in which they navigate and experience the world are not in fact so different. Upon realizing their similarities and having engaged in a number of candid conversations around relationships, sex, consent, and so on, Nausbaum and Joy felt drawn to create a performance inspired by their lived experiences and intimate discussions around these topics. Autobiographically informed, this play draws attention to Nausbaum and Joy's shared reality as interable housemates and friends while encouraging audiences to consider and reflect upon their preconceived notions of disability and sexuality, intimacy, and female empowerment. SLS not only engages with complex experiences of womanhood and relationships but also invites a much-needed dialogue about the inclusion of disability and the neurodiverse experience within feminist discourse. In addition to the subject matter of this piece, the creative process for SLS is worth noting for the ways in which it bridges practices of accessibility and care within a feminist framework. Through engaging in practices of interdependence, access intimacy, and radical relatedness, these women are able to create and work within a space that feels held, safe, and supportive. Writer, educator, and disability justice organizer Mia Mingus writes extensively about access intimacy as "interdependence in action": "Access intimacy is that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else 'gets' your access needs."28 Within the creative process of developing the script for SLS, Nausbaum and Joy (aided by their familiarity with one another as long-term housemates) have implemented strategies for writing and devising that are conducive to and celebratory of their individual needs as interable artistic collaborators. Within this creative space, Nausbaum and Joy are equals; despite Joy's position as support worker, the dynamics of care are mutual and exchanged fluidly between them. Through the sharing of personal and intimate stories, these two women participate in feminist acts of care, holding space for one another to share and process while forming connections and relations between their individual and shared lived experiences. Expanding upon this notion of working within spaces of relation, Barbara Bickel and colleagues explore "radical relatedness" as a means of finding connection and building community across difference. They explain that radical relatedness "calls for a priority valuation of...

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