Disability, Masculinity, Militarism: The Paralympics and the Cultural (Re-)production of the Para-athlete-soldier
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: In this paper, we unpack the body politic of the para-athlete-soldier and its positioning within masculinizing, militarized, national, popular cultural discourses. Drawing on an integrated methodological approach that explored the media production, representation and consumption of the 2016 Paralympics, we focus on the inscription of a disabled masculinity onto the bodies of ex-military personnel that inculcate normative notions of heterosexuality and the neoliberal (‘inclusive’) national and ableist body politic. The data set indicate that the hyper- and hypo-visibility of Paralympians construct inclusive cultural collective imaginaries around disability inclusion and the ‘progressive’ state whilst at the same time structuring forms of disciplinary exclusion. We conclude that the gendered, technologized and commodified bodies [Pullen, E. & Silk, M. 2020. Gender, Technology and the Ablenational Paralympic Body Politic. Cultural Studies, 34(3):466–88] of National Paralympic bodies offers compelling insights into contemporary disability biopolitics where sport, militarization, gender and the neoliberal national body intersect.
Authors: Emma Pullen, Michael Silk
Institutions: Loughborough University, Bournemouth University
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3094299535