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Sexual and marital patterns of the Visually Impaired

According to the available data material, there is a discrepancy in the marital opportunities of males and females with visual impairments. Indications are that the latter tend to marry or co-habit with the former. In contrast, men with visual impairments are not so prone to what, for want of a better term, I refer to as in-marriage; i.e. marriage between individuals with a similar disability. In-marriage can be explained by, among other things examining some cultural aspects of society.

The significance Of culture in any society is its normative functions; i.e. that it provides the standards and guidelines for much of the social/economic interaction and relationships between individuals or categories of individuals. Normally, it is in the course of seeking entry to arenas for such interaction or activity that people with visual impairments are Poignantly made aware of the ramifications of their physiological disability. Such ramifications often appear in the form of partial or total exclusion from desired activities and/or roles. I will illustrate the situation by exploring the life space of Ugandan blind women; their marital prospects to sighted men in particular. In trying to grasp the problem we must examine the prevailing situation in terms of: the roles and statuses individuals aspire for or which society ascribes to them, for example, through cultural values, beliefs and practices that sustain such social phenomena.

The in-marriage phenomenon is not unique to Uganda, however. Cross cultural observations pointing to the marital problems, especially of women with visual impairments, have been made in other countries. From Nicaragua, Frank Bruun (personal communication) reports tendencies of in-marriage similar to those in Uganda. Even in Scandinavia, where sexual equality and technological advancement are claimed to be high, Momrak Haugann (1989) suggests that traditional gender roles in Norwegian society, among other things, hamper marriage between sighted men and women with visual impairments. Deshen (1987), reports similar experiences from Israel. Moreover, the problem (if one can characterise the Phenomenon in such terms) applies to all categories of persons with conspicuous disabilities. However, In Uganda, as might be the case elsewhere, sexual relationships between women with visual impairments and sighted men do occur; perhaps more so in this era of HIV/Aids as non-disabled men believe women with disabilities to be among the assumed risk-free groups of females. Such relationships are usually casual, short-term and often covert, causing the female partner to seek more permanent relationships within the disability group.

Gender Roles as Causes for Rejection of Blind Women

While some causes for in-marriage, particularly of females, have their roots in people's perceptions of people with visual impairments, we may grasp the situation better if we also identify the cultural values and practices as depicted in gender roles. From this perspective, it is possible to explain why women with visual impairments are less attractive as marital partners for sighted men than men are for sighted women.

Generally, in the male-dominated Ugandan society, which females it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with and/or to marry depends upon the cultural beliefs and values of the various ethnic groups in the country. Normally, marriage is an affair and relationship between the married couple and others in the family. it is traditional practice for a prospective spouse, particularly the female, to be even identified, commended, seconded and, finally, approved by close kin and friends. Such kin and friends including neighbours contribute materially or otherwise both to the bride-wealth and wedding ceremonies. Furthermore, as a future member of the family, the prospective spouse has to be acceptable in most physical and social aspects to the future in-laws who expect to receive various services.

Like most women in other societies, once married, the Ugandan woman traditionally fulfils most household roles: mother, hostess, house and homestead-keeper, provider of meals, provider of home-grown food, etc. Even when most of the household tasks are performed by others, credit and/or criticism will be given to the housewife. She is also the “social contact” of the affinal families and is supposed to keep good and co-operative relations with neighbours. A woman's ability to fulfil these roles is always tested at times of celebration or crisis; occasions like weddings or death-related ceremonies which prompt neighbourhood and family gatherings. It is at such events that evaluative criticism of her physical appearance and ability to perform tasks expected of a housewife are expressed. Such criticism is at most times also directed at the man's choice of a wife who is, for example: beautiful, unbecoming, charming, hard-working, lazy, etc.

Analysis of the Sexual and Domestic Roles

Because sexual intercourse is an activity of what we might call the private sphere and generally requires no more than the two participants for consummation. its social or relational aspects are thus circumscribed by the nature of the relationship and its objective, namely sexual satisfaction. Moreover, neither are other physical abilities nor approval by others necessarily required for its realisation. Consequently, a woman with a disability in the right place at the right time is not perceived as too incapacitated to satisfy the sexual needs of sighted men. This implies that the coping requirements of sexual activity per se are not so intricate as to be associated with the other physical attributes of an individual, for example those, which are normally identified with sight.

On the other hand, a Ugandan homestead is a relatively “public sphere” in which domestic relations are intertwined with others in the social structure, all of them sustained by traditional values and practices.

Relationships of the “domestic sphere” thus involve more people than the spouses themselves such that, as suggested earlier, there is more room for evaluative criticism in the course of social intercourse. Consequently, the public nature of almost all of the domestic roles of a housewife are more likely to evoke a linkage between physiological condition and functional physical attributes than does her purely sex role. Hence, coping in one sphere or field of social relations does not imply recognition of coping potential in the other. Therefore, while a woman with a visual impairment can provide sexual services she is presumably unable to fulfil the domestic duties that make a Ugandan homestead a good home. In addition, as many of my female informants observed, the behaviour of parents toward their visually impaired daughters is itself a barrier to their marital prospects. This is because in the attempt to protect their daughters from assumed danger that lack of sight might occasion, parents neglect the traditional socialization processes which are intended to transform girls into competent home managers.

In the light of the above, we must accept the fact that even when equipped with the relevant coping skills, most Ugandan women with visual impairments will for a long time to come be restricted to males from within their sub-group and, perhaps, the wider group of disabled people to which they belong. I believe this to be so because the other factors upon which sighted men base their choices for prospective spouses are not so easily transformable as lack of coping skills is. However, it is possible to assume that women with visual impairments can have relatively stable and overt sexual relationships with sighted partners were they to be sufficiently economically empowered to a level of self-reliance. That way they could, for instance, attain the today socially agreeable status of Independent female household-head, for example "nakyeyombekedde; (a woman who owns her homestead). Being self-reliant, nakyeyombekedde always has the potential to attract men because of her socio-economic status. Self-reliance in various aspects is, for instance, among the main reasons for the relatively normal phenomena of marriage between men with visual impairments and sighted women. Sighted women participate actively in income-generating activities and have, with increased education and acquisition of social, political and economic empowerment, progressively embraced male-dominated activities. Therefore, they neither have to depend totally on the visually impaired spouse nor on the goodwill of their kin for survival.

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