* Content warning: sexual assault
When Madison Cawthorn, a twenty-five-year-old Congressional candidate and paraplegic, stood up from his wheelchair at the 2020 Republican National Convention, he was met with applause.
Disabled people should be held accountable to the same extent as their able-bodied peers.
But his appearance also sparked controversy. Cawthorn, who is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman named Katrina Krulikas. I do not intend to speculate on whether Cawthorn is innocent or guilty, but I do find it concerning how little media attention this has received in the wake of the Me Too movement.
As a disabled woman, I wonder if the lack of media attention and gravity of these allegations is linked to Cawthorn’s disability and the perceived innocence (or non-threat) of a white man in a wheelchair.
Cawthorn’s public relations consultant, John Hart, was quoted in Asheville’s Citizen-Times insinuating that Cawthorn was incapable of assault due to his disability. While denying the allegations, Hart wrote in an email, “There’s a big difference between a failed teenage romantic advance and being forceful, to the extent that’s possible when you’re a paraplegic,” implying that Cawthorn’s paraplegia makes him unable to use force on women.
WORLD magazine reported that Hart also said the incident with Krulikas occurred on “one of Madison’s first dates after he was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life”—as if there is a grace period where newly disabled men can behave however they want.
Cawthorn and his campaign should not use his disability to excuse his behavior, and if the allegations are false, his disability still should not factor into the situation. Hart appealed to ableist assumptions about disabled people being innocent. Disabled people should be held accountable to the same extent as their able-bodied peers.
According to Krulikas, Cawthorn coerced her to sit on his lap while they were on a date. A person who cannot use his lower body can still coerce, forcefully kiss, or perform sexual acts. To insinuate that paraplegics are incapable of sexual violence is irresponsible. Disabled people of all genders are capable of sexual harassment and sexual assualt.
If someone needs to be coerced into doing something, the action is not consensual. Even without using physical force, people can commit assault. Denying that is denying that everyone has the right to say no and have their boundaries be respected.
Other women have also reported that they have felt uncomfortable around Cawthorn. They allege that he asked them about their sexual histories. Again, his disability would not prevent him from doing this. Cawthorn seems perfectly capable of communicating, so his disability should not factor into the legitimacy or illegitimacy of these claims.
To say that disabled men are incapable of violence denies the truth. South African Paralympic champion, Oscar Pistorius, once dubbed an “international hero,” fell from grace after he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. The author of the piece, Kim Masters, said Pistorius “has overcome so much disability and prejudice, and . . . changed the world.”
Masters lauded Pistorius and seemed to mourn his image as her hero, rather than focusing on Steenkamp’s senseless murder.
In a March 2018 lecture, Dr. Giuseppina Iacono-Lobo, an English professor at Loyola University Maryland, spoke about disability representation in the media. She discussed the stereotypical “Super Crip” character that “overcomes” his or her disability and inspires the world. This trope gives the false impression that not only can disabilities be overcome, but that those who do so are heroes.
When people are lauded as heroes, they are often shielded from criticism and accountability. But Pistorius is not just a man who defied odds; he also murdered his girlfriend. His disability and his physical feats do not exempt him from horrific behavior, and pretending that it does is delusional.
Because I am disabled, I have had more dealings with disabled men than most women my age. I attended a sleepaway camp for disabled kids and young adults for nearly a decade and have participated in adaptive sports regularly. As a result, I have experienced unwanted sexual advances and other uncomfortable situations from disabled men.
When I was in my late teens, I had the unpleasant and humiliating experience of a young man announcing what he wanted to do to my body (graphically describing anal sex) in front of a group of my friends. I had never flirted with this man or expressed interest in him prior to this incident. In this instance, I was not assaulted, but my boundaries were crossed.
Regardless of what becomes of the allegations against Cawthorn, it is important to remember that disabled men are not heroes for merely existing. They are human, and have been inundated by patriarchal society.
Disabled men (or disabled people of any gender), should not be placed on a pedestal. As a society, our perception of disability must change, and with that comes the realization that disabled people are not angels or heroes, but humans that can cause harm, do good, or exist in the space between.