The internet, once again, can`t seem to stop talking about conjoined twins Brittany and Abigail Hensel – and experts say their unwanted obsession with their personal lives has gone too far.
Spotlight on several media outlets, including Today and the New York Post, reported that Abigail had a private wedding in 2021.
Disability studies and media experts say growing interest in the Hensel twins’ personal lives has shed light on how people treat and talk about people with different bodies often. The truth is that the Hensel twins, like everyone else, deserve to live a normal life that doesn’t always cause controversy.
Elizabeth Ellcessor, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Virginia, said: “We see something unusual, interesting, a little unusual, and it’s not something that many people are qualified to say about.”
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So we’re seeing a lot of attention from social media and other covers focusing on this topic in a particularly notable way, as people in Alice Dreger, historian, ethicist People in their 30s always get married, says biologist and author of ‘‘One of Us” Why are people so fascinated by Abby Hensel’s marriage On the one hand, it has to be so.
“People have always been fascinated by the Siamese people because they represent a challenge to the way we think about the individual,” Dreger said.
We often think of individuality as a person existing in one large skin, and conjoined twins like Abigail and Brittany, are two people in one large skin.
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For example, the Hensel twins are quite private in public outside of their television appearances, giving the impression that they are not interested in sharing every detail of their lives with the world.
Ellcessor said that the infatuation surrounding the Hensel twins’ romantic relationship was also especially inappropriate, as it often stemmed from ‘‘lustful sexual interests.”
How should we talk about Abby and Brittany Hensel? Ellcessor said it was essential that any discussion of the Hensels’ private lives be from their perspective and not anyone else’s, and let the twins take the lead on what was acceptable is left to speculation and what not.
“The best advice is to prioritize their voices and desires,” she says. “What do they want to share? What do they want us to know? It is important to remember to treat people with unusual bodies as human beings, not as anomalies.
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And if they choose not to open their lives up for discussion, it’s important to respect that. “The experience of having a different body depends on the culture around you,” Dreger said. “Abigail and Brittany were lucky enough to live in a tolerant and reasonable small town.
In fact, throughout history, most conjoined twins chose to live in small towns, I think, precisely for this reason: so they can live “a peaceful life without constant interference.”
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