(Dis)abled masculinities? (Re)doing gender across disability and sport

Abstract

In this article we aim to investigate how sport represents an area of practices that allows (re)building a masculinity considered socially adequate within biographies crossed by the turning point of an onset physical impairment. Making use of the approach of illness narratives, we analyze the life stories of three men who encountered severe physical accidents during adolescence. In this way, we try to outline some strategies of management of the so-called “dilemma of the disabled masculinity” (Shuttleworth et al. 2012), showing how the manhood acts adopted by our participants are placed between the neu-tralization of the disabling impact of impairments and the attempt to enhance some as-pects of their physical and emotional experiences that partially hybridize the dominant masculinity patterns.

Keywords: masculinities, disability studies, sport, body, manhood acts.