This documentary about Rhys Bowler’s love life is overly concerned with disabled people paying for sex. It’s a highly questionable focus – even if there are moving moments
This documentary opens with Rhys Bowler’s tattoo artist asking the question every disabled person dreads: “How do you have sex?” Bowler – who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a life-limiting muscle-wasting condition that means he uses assisted ventilation and an electric wheelchair – takes the question in better spirit than most of us, gamely explaining that “everything works” but he is “lazy and just lays there”.
It is clearly a scripted reality device to get the key information across to the viewer quickly, but it speaks to the dilemma at the heart of this often moving documentary: the sex lives of disabled people is a topic full of prejudice and taboos that need busting. That said, ultimately, it is no one else’s business; the idea that it might be is surely half the problem.
