Cover Photo: Tallulah Pomeroy
Tallulah Pomeroy

Are Blind People Denied Their Sexuality?

The contortions that people will undergo to desexualize me, a blind woman, can be overwhelming.

This is A Blind Writer’s Notebook, a monthly column by M. Leona Godin about her experiences as a writer and the monolithic trope of blindness.

The Sheltering Sky.

Waiting for the Barbarians

“When I look straight there is nothing, there is— ”(she rubs the air in front of her like someone cleaning a window).

“A blur,” I say.

“There is a blur. But I can see out of the sides of my eyes. The left eye is better than the right. How could I find my way if I didn’t see?”

“You visit other girls,” she whispers. “You think I do not know?”

I make a peremptory gesture for her to be quiet.

“Do you also treat them like this?” she whispers, and starts to sob.

Though my heart goes out to her, there is nothing I can do. Yet what humiliation for her! She cannot even leave the apartment without tottering and fumbling while she dresses. She is as much a prisoner now as ever before. I pat her hand and sink deeper into gloom.

Playboy

Ordinary Daylight,

Red Dragon,Hannibal.Ray,

M. Leona Godin is a writer, actor, artist, and educator who is blind.

She is currently working on Seeing & Not-Seeing: A Personal and

Cultural History of Blindness with Pantheon Books. Godin founded

Aromatica Poetica as a venue for exploring the arts and sciences of

smell and taste, an online magazine not specifically for, but

welcoming to, blind readers and writers. She is proud to be a 2019

Logan Nonfiction Fellow.