Sexualities 0(0) 1–26 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1363460715620575 sex.sagepub.com Article Sexual surveillance and control in a community-based intellectual disability service Michael Feely Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Abstract Within contemporary policy documents regarding intellectual disability and sexuality we often find a progress narrative that contrasts a dark past, when the sexuality of disabled people was suppressed, with an enlightened present, when we recognize the sexual rights of all human beings. In this paper – which pertains to the Republic of Ireland – I take up the Foucauldian and Deleuzian position of treating such progress narratives with suspicion. From this perspective, I offer an alternative reading of the treatment of intellectual disability and sexuality in the present, and I seek to map just some of the subtle but effective ways this population’s sexuality continues to be controlled today. Keywords Assemblage, Deleuze, Foucault, intellectual disability, sexuality, surveillance Within contemporary policy documents regarding intellectual disability and sexu- ality we often find a progress narrative that contrasts a dark past, when the sexu- ality of disabled people was suppressed, with an enlightened present, when we recognize the sexual rights of all human beings. In this paper – which pertains to the Republic of Ireland – I take up the Foucauldian (1977) and Deleuzian (1992) position of treating such progress narratives with suspicion. From this perspective, I offer an alternative reading of the treatment of intellectual disability and sexuality in the present, and I seek to map just some of the subtle but effective ways this population’s sexuality continues to be controlled today. Corresponding author: Michael Feely, Department of Social Work, Trinity College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Email: mfeely@tcd.ie at Leabharlann TCD / Trinity College Dublin Library on June 3, 2016 sex.sagepub.com Downloaded from