We know this is a stressful time, we hope that our resources are able to bring some comfort in this unstable time. We are experiencing this together!
We hope that by understanding that all people can benefit from mobility aids, we can create a community that centers products around health and body being in mind. We know many of the tools we use everyday, are not always made to support the human body in doing the activity it is designed for. There are also an array of items that we use as one use items that could instead be reusable, as our need for support may increase over time, not decrease. The creators of this site are aware that mobility aids come in all shapes and sizes, and for too many people with accessibility issues, we are creating our own support devices and finding ways to personalize them to our given needs. We hope that by bringing light to the way mobility aids can help all people, we will be able to make them more accessible for everyone who needs them. It's imperative that we keep in mind how almost all people will experience a temporary disability in their lifetime, and more than 1/4 will experience a permanent one. Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum in another large group that goes unnoticed when it comes to the potential aids that can prevent labor and birthing complications. As a society we have to do what we can to educate ourselves on our health and see what we can do to make our everyday items and accessibility aids more accessible for everyone who can benefit from them.
Below is a list of sites and groups that have small businesses focusing on the expansion of accessibility aids, and education surrounding them.
Learning about the body systems in their entirety has long been stigmatized because of the lack of professional ability to discuss certain topics without having patriarchal/colonial topics/conversations pieces, coming up. It's important that we understand that we all have bodies, and while we all have our differences, many of us face similar issues. Unfortunately, the greater community has made certain topics uncomfortable to talk about with medical professionals, leaving a grave whole of medical issues that have never been discussed. As medicine has continued to evolve, it has continued to leave out female bodies, black bodies, and other demographics they'd rather ignore.
Medical system (corporation side) has focused on profit rather than treatments for the past 20 years, which has left many people in a lull of being able to discuss these 'taboo' stimagtized issues. Of course we have continued to see a loss in medical access with the recent cut of medicaid and higher insurance premiums. We have to be able to come together as a community, without enabling abuse and manipulation, and discuss these medical problems that we face so medicine facilities and doctors are able to do more research and find the causes of our long-term issues.
Our parents and grandparents were very scared to discuss their medical history and conditions, due to worry that the government or jobs may use that information as a reason to discriminate against them. We want to acknowledge that this is still an issue, and can always resurface as an even bigger issue. However, we are hoping that this information sets people up to communicate effectively with their doctors, while also maintaining the knowledge that they can look into their issues on their own. Discussing medical issues publicly when you feel confident and able, is something that can help many people. Whether you are just discussing it with friends or posting about it publicly, you are calling attention to medical information you did not have prior, which guarantees there are others like you out there. Our government and billionaire overlords don't want us having access to medical information of any kind, especially easy to comprehend and example experiences that people can quickly access for helpful information on how to get the same help from their doctors, or assistive devices, etc.
Tiktok Accounts: @TheModernMidwife @LilaMaternity (For more information on the creator and types of products available.)
One may be lead to assume that 'toys' and assistive devices made in the sex industry are used only for pleasure, but this information is often false. We do not currently have a society that can talk about sexuality (& all it entails) in a positive light. We also often group reproductive aids and assistive products to be centered around increasing pleasure, when often that is not the intention behind the product. In order for us to have better, more expansive, conversations, we must be willing to identify the things we have been mislead on. For many people the conversation around pleasurable sexual activities and assistive aids for reproductive use, is not so in depth; we hope that we can foster a conversation where the act of sex itself is not sexualized. It is vital that we are able to come together as a species, across both sexes, to understand that sexual activity has historically not always been pleasurable for everyone involved, and the force of birthing and sex on females, has created a generational shift in how one may view sexual activity. For example, being able to discuss an orgasm and how they can occur for/in different bodies, without sexualizing the conversation is imperative for us to have a framework, and move through discussing the ways pleasure can occur with someone, without creating unnecessary pressure or being uneducated about potential needs.
Below we have a list of groups, items, and people who are working to create a healthier and cleaner way of doing things, or assistive devices that have come out of such amazing research opportunities. When coming at these conversations from a scientific perspective, we have to remain aware that these are functions of our bodies, and for some the lack of function or ability is really difficult to manage. The more we have educated conversations on these topics, the less scared or stigmatizing it will be to experience them.
We hope that we can foster a conversation where the act of sex itself is not sexualized. It is vital that we are able to come together as a species, across both sexes, to understand that sexual activity has historically not always been pleasurable for everyone involved, and the force of birthing and sex on females, has created a generational shift in how one may view sexual activity. When coming at these conversations from a scientific perspective, we have to remain aware that these are functions of our bodies, and for some the lack of function or ability is really difficult to manage. The more we have educated conversations on these topics, the less scared or stigmatizing it will be to experience them. We all have these bodies, yet we still want to live in a world where we pretend we don't know. There is nothing that should be forcibly hidden from the rest of the world, especially if it is about the state of our bodies or lives, we are here on Earth to wittness one another. We should curate a society where there is no justification for unconsensual actions that comes from ever mistaking another human's state of being as 'promiscuity', for that is a grave dishonor to our own species. Promiscuity itself, is a word that should have never needed to exist, only used to describe a women's presentation from a horrendous man's perspective.
Another example, being able to discuss an orgasm and how they can occur for/in different bodies, without sexualizing the conversation, is imperative for us to have a framework and move through discussing the ways pleasure can occur with another person, without creating unnecessary pressure or being uneducated about potential needs.
There are many groups of people who do not experience, or define, sexual pleasure in the ways typical society may; and beyond their ability for such, they carry entire lives with them still. We often forget about people's traumas (old or new), and that emotional, physical, or mental these traumas stay with us, changing in the soft ways they might, but they never go away. We have to keep in mind that outside of ability or want, all bodies experience orgasm and pleasure differently in the physical form. This along, with the complexity of different genitalia potentially needing different stimulation to achieve pleasure, can influence the series of actions so that sexual acts are only pleasurable for one person at a time.
From a neurological perspective, we have to keep in mind that sexual pleasure and sexual desires have always lived in the part of the brain responsible for fight or flight, and our adrenaline centers, which means for those who've experienced a lot of their life in severe fight or flight, sexual activities may be a different experience. It is often that people experience intense emotional releases when they experience sexual pleasure, which is something that we as a society should be foster more in conversation.
Many groups of people experience their pleasure in different ways depending on how sexual activities have occured in their lives, and how it affects them. We know that 1 in 6 women have been assaulted, so we understand that there may be direct trauma associated with the act of sex, and sexual pleasure. The act of sexual reproduction for the intention of birth can also bring it's own from of trauma for many people. Experiencing a misscarriage or loss of a child, is a life-changing experience, one that may temporarily or long-term affect the people who are in that relationship. For parents going through infertility, the act of sexual activity can become associated with negative emotions rather than positive ones. That does not mean that sexual activity isn't pleasurable for people in this situation, but that the pleasure is not being done for the act of pleasure, but to lead to a child.
If you would like to help us write about commonly silenced areas or personal experiences you may have with these topics, contact us at thisisactivism2023@gmail.com or fill out our Comments page. We want our website to be a continuous growth of knowledge to share with each other in a positive way. There are so many things we don't talk about and we should!