Amputee Women
Loss of a limb is a major life trauma that requires much adjustment, but it is not the end of life as you know it. People with limb differences continue to do many amazing things. Here are some resources to help you, or a loved one, with your special needs.
Amputee Community
I felt disturbingly unattractive, convinced that no one could ever love someone who looked like me. No one, that is, except a devotee. Reading the webpages, I realized that the people staring at me in the street weren't the aberration, the devotees were. The mere fact that they were clustered on the Internet, defending their desire for amputated women, seemed to testify to the unique nature of their attraction. The defensive rhetoric of the websites confirmed my fears that the larger culture viewed women like me as unattractive and undesirable. Otherwise, I reasoned, why would such organizations even be necessary? Discovering the online amputee/devotee community filled me with resignation because it seemed to offer me my only chance of community, support, and companionship. I was suddenly inside a community of which I wanted no part, a community which chilled me to the bone.
Refocusing on the Amputee Woman
In my first encounters with the amputee/devotee groups, the women in these organizations were largely invisible to me. Despite my original intent to learn more about women amputees, despite the web space devoted to these women's pictures and stories, all I could see were the stories of the devotees. The very idea of disability fetishism was so new to me that I forgot about the women in trying to understand the men. As time has passed, however, and as I have become more interested in the specific barriers facing women with disabilities, I find myself returning to the amputee women involved in these groups. What are they finding in the amputee/devotee community that I had missed? Although I had previously ignored these women in my first forays into the amputee/devotee community, I now find their stories compelling. What motivates their involvement in organizations that many people perceive to be exploitative and distasteful? What possible benefits do they derive from their interactions with other amputees and devotees? I find these kinds of questions intriguing because most of the published research on the amputee/devotee community has focused exclusively on the devotees. Questions about the experiences and motivations of amputees involved in such groups have not been raised, and they constitute the inspiration behind this paper. In the fall of 1999, I re-introduced myself to the amputee/devotee community, asking Jama Bennett, the founder of Amputee Support Coalition of the World (ASCOTWorld), if she would be willing to discuss the group and her participation in it. Through those conversations, I begin a preliminary exploration into female amputees' own understanding of ASCOTWorld and its function in their lives. Bennett herself suggests that ASCOTWorld serves as a site of empowerment for female amputees, resisting dominant cultural stereotypes about the asexuality of disabled women.
Amputee Women Athletes
There is a true sense of community for women amutees. Below is a truely touching story:
On October 15, 2005, almost three years ago, Sarah Reinersten became the first above-the-knee amputee to complete the ironman, finishing the Hawaii Ford Ironman World Championship in 15 hours and 5 minutes. In 2000, Reinertsen competed in the Millennium Marathon in New Zealand and set a new world record at 5:48:32 for above-the-knee amputee athletes. She won a gold medal in the 100m and broke the world record (18:06) in 1999 at the Paralympic Revival. In that same year she won three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m, broke the world record in the 200m (39:9) and won a silver medal in the 4x100 relay at the International Sports Organization for Disabled World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. Reinertsen competed in the New York City Marathon in 1998 and broke the world record (5:52.38) for her disability divison. That year, she was honored as the "Female Athlete of the year" by Achilles Track Club.