Disability pretenders

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A disability pretender is a person who is attracted to people with disabilities and behaves as if s/he is disabled.

Pretenders may be the "missing link" between devotees and wannabes, proving an assumed continuum between those merely attracted to people with disabilities and those actively wishing to become disabled.

Pretending takes a variety of forms. Some chatroom users on internet sites catering to devotees have complained that chat counterparts they assumed were female were revealed as male devotees. This form of pretending (where a devotee derives pleasure by pretending to be a disabled woman) may indicate a very broad predisposition to pretending among devotees.

Pretending includes dressing and acting in ways typical of disabled people, including making use of aids (crutches, wheelchairs, white canes, etc.) typically used by them. Pretending may also take the form of a devotee persuading his or her sexual partner to play the role of a disabled person. Pretending may be practiced in private, in intimacy, or in public, and may occupy surprisingly long periods. In the latter case, some pretenders hope that the disability may become permanent, e.g. through tissue necrosis caused by constricted blood supply, etc.

[edit] References

[1] online version of Bruno, R. L., PhD, "Devotees, pretenders and wannabes: Two cases of Factitious Disability Disorder," The Journal of Sexuality and Disability, 1997, 15, pp. 243-260

[2] this portal to the pretender web lists 12 pretender and three pretender/wannabe websites

[edit] See also

• abasiophilia — the desire for people who limp and/or use leg braces, walking sticks, crutches, walkers or wheelchairs
• acrotomophilia — the desire for amputees (also known as "amputee fetishism")
• amaurophilia — the desire for blind partners
• amputee fetishism — the desire for partners with missing limbs (also known as "acrotomophilia")
• apotemnophilia — the desire to acquire a disability ("wannabeism," "transability")
• attraction to disability — the broad range of sexualised fascinations with disabled people
• disability devotee ("dev") — one who desires disabled partners
• eyeglass fetishism — the desire for partners who wear spectacles
• handicap fetishism — another term for the broad range of attractions to disability
• legbrace fetishism — the desire for partners who use leg braces; an aspect of abasiophilia
• medical fetishism — a sexualised interest in observing medical practice and receiving medical treatment
• Munchhausen's syndrome — a psychological disorder whose sufferers feign illness and/or cause themselves self-harm
• robot fetishism — the desire for people dressed to appear like robots and acting as robots
• statuephilia — the desire for mannequins or for statue-like immobility, feigned or caused by illness or paralysis (also known as "agalmatophilia")
• transformation fetish — the desire for people who undergo physical transformation (mostly an aspect of pornography fetishism) or body modification