Disasters, Disability, and Masculinities

• In Event: 444 - Section on Disability and Society Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Social Implications of the Intersection of Disability and Gender

Abstract

Disabled men’s subjectivities are uniquely shaped by abjection. In disasters, the results of such abjection are life-threatening. In every disaster in the last 20 years, disabled people died and were injured at higher rates than nondisabled people because of inaccessible environments. As a result of such disabling barriers, abjection, and the power of normativity, disabled masculinities experience unique social expressions and social locations – even though they are shaped by other forms of power such as race, class and gender. Disabled masculinities are interstitial and indeterminate – a position that offers possibilities for both ‘gender trouble’ and ‘normativity trouble’ which can challenge hegemonic masculinity in multiple contexts, including disasters.

Author

• Mark Sherry, University of Toledo