Sexual Innovator and Pioneer: Tuppy Owens

Tuppy Owens is a sexual innovator and pioneer specialising in disability. She is a qualified sex therapist with a degree in Zoology from Exeter and a Diploma in Human Sexuality from London University.

Tuppy has just created the Sexual Respect Tool Kit, an online resource to help GPs and other health and social care professionals initiate conversations around sex.

 

She is also working on creating harnesses so that disabled men and women who cannot hold sex toys can have them strapped onto their bodies. These are called Happy Harnesses and they will soon be available.

In 2010, Tuppy Owens was named one of the Family Planning Association’s 80 most influential achievers.

In 1979, Tuppy started Outsiders, for disabled people to find sexual partners.

It’s a wonderful not-for-profit that offers personal peer support to members, regular gatherings and a Sex and Disability Helpline.

The below video is a fantastic insight in to how Outsiders has helped and continues to help individuals in their quest for love, companionship and sexual experiences.

In the late 1960’s, Tuppy established a sex education book publishing company, for which she wrote and published The Sex Maniac’s Diary. It featured sex positions of the day, kinks of the week and listed sex and erotic establishments and trends around the world and, from the 80’s on, safer sex (with the first drawings of how to put a condom on).

Throughout her career, she has written and appeared in the media on many sexual issues. Find a full list of publications here.

She is currently writing a book for health professionals on sex and disability for Jessica Kingsley.

As part of the International Year of Disabled People 1982, Outsiders mounted an international exhibition of Erotic Art by Disabled People which opened at the Round House.

In 2009 the Sexual Health and Disability Alliance, part of Outsiders, held a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine, ending with performances by a sex worker with a quadripegic, and a stripper with a deaf-blind man.

To fund Outsiders, Tuppy also created and ran the Night of the Senses all-night charity ball and the Erotic Awards, which honours artists and pioneers having a sex-positive influence — 2014 will mark its 20th Anniversary.

In 2013, She handed the Awards and Ball over to some younger people to give herself more time for other projects, though continues to hold fundraising events for Outsiders.

Tuppy campaigns tirelessly for sexual freedom and has founded a number of groups that fight for sexual rights for disabled people.

Created in 2008 Tuppy TLC-trust.org.uk helps to connect disabled men & women to responsible sex workers & professional sexual advocates.

She also runs the Sexual Freedom Coalition which brings together all the groups campaigning for sexual freedom, to form a united force, and is in the process of setting up a Sexual Advocacy service.

Tuppy is determined that stripping and sex work should thrive so that the talented people who wish to do this kind of work can go about their work freely with respect.