The model PWD

[wheelbearep]

Just a question for devs and PWD/devs...who was your model PWD? Do you remember, or even knew, the person you felt a conscious attraction to the moment you saw them? What about them elevated your heart rate?

[devman1950]

When I was a young teenager there was a guy a bit older than I in my neighborhood who had survived polio. I was in heaven each time I would see him out and about wheeling. Truly this was my "coming out" as gay and as a dev I'm sure

[newmn]

Good question. I was probably about 5 years old and at the county fair. Was riding the Ferris wheel with my older cousin and saw a young AK amputee on crutches walking past. He was wearing a white t-shirt and light blue pants. I have no frame of reference around it, but the moment has always been etched in my mind.

[robbb]

That is a good question... And if I'm honest I'm not sure I can answer it simply.

I think it is very often as simple as who I've seen recently as they tend to play on my mind for a while.

Going way back to childhood it would be the young injured marine who came to live with his sister who was a neighbour. As a kid that was something of a defining moment dev and sexuality wise.

There is a para guy on here I chat to, never seen what he looks like but I do find his personality and intelligence very attractive.

Currently there are three guys on Insta who I am very into, one of them lives in the nearest big town to me. Interestingly none are anything specifically special to look at, just nice, masculine, family guys getting on with life which is always a turn on for me.

R.

[myrrh]

I have two. Funnily enough, all the respondents so far have been gay, and the PWD who came to my mind first were all women. I'm generally primarily attracted to very butch AB women, but PWD women are a totally different story. The first super duper mega dev crush I had was on conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel. I saw them on tv and we were about the same age, so it was an age-appropriate crush that I was totally lost in. I must have been about 12 or so.

The other was a woman I glimpsed at a bus stop, she looked like maybe she had arthrogryposis or something but I can't really say for sure. All I can say, is she was stunning. It's been years, and I still think of her any time I pass that bus stop.

These weren't my first dev crushes or anything. But when I think of times that I just caught a glimpse of a PWD and felt like I could die on the spot, this is what comes to mind.

[Deleted]

I haven’t seen a pwd in my area at all. I knew from a very young age that I was overly interested in and disabled characters in books/films but it wasn’t till my forties that I made an active decision to look for a relationship with a pwd. Hello online dating........

[feelsunshine]

I grew up in a rural area and basically never saw "real" wheelers. Only on TV once in a while.

I am fairly certain that my first memory of a wheeler was in the movie "Heidi" from 1993. I was 7 at that time. I was fascinated with that wheeler girl in the movie. I didn't like the girl in general because I din't sympathize with the role she was in. But I was fascinated by the fact that she couldn't walk.

And then, somehow I keep having Eric Stoltz in mind as an early PWD model. The Movie "The Waterdance" where he is in, was released in 1992. I can't tell for sure, but I think I must have seen a glimpse of its movie trailer or something back then. Because when I started to discover my devness, Eric Stoltz from that movie seemed very very familiar.

In 2012, I purchased the movie "Gran Paradiso" with Ken Duken. That was at the time when I lived alone in my first apartment. And yes, Ken Duken was my model PWD for quite a while.

So, wow, I didn't realize until now that I have owned the Gran Paradiso DVD for 8 years already (Amazon just told me - and I paid 23 € for it. So already back then it was hard to find)... I keep thinking now that it is strange that I didn't search the internet more on the topic. I could have found PD way earlier... But I guess at that time this DVD was enough eye candy for me and there was no need to get more.

[ayla]

Mar 21, 2020 12:53:48 GMT -5 wheelbearep said:

Just a question for devs and PWD/devs...who was your model PWD? Do you remember, or even knew, the person you felt a conscious attraction to the moment you saw them? What about them elevated your heart rate?

imgur.com/gallery/jeCusQQ

Here’s my OG crush and ideal para dreamboat, Chris Waddell, in People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People feature in 1998. The first time I can recall experiencing a conscious, physical attraction was seeing this photo!

But in real life, I didn’t come across a sexy (to me) PWD until 2004 when I met a boy at my university. After 6 years of no sightings I was too nervous to ever make a move on him! He was so cute and seemed so cool. I had no mutual friends and no convenient excuse to introduce myself, or so I thought. At the time it seemed like just “being attracted” was a creepy reason (god if I only could time travel back and give myself a good refreshing slap!). I kept waiting for a natural “perfect moment” but it never arrived. So I would always just hope to catch sight of him on campus while I listened to the Garden State soundtrack on my iPod classic 😂