Gentlemen, Heroes, Real Men, Disabled Men: Explorations at the Intersections of Disability and Masculinity in Contemporary China

Abstract

This article advances new perspectives on disability culture in contemporary China. Using gender – specifically masculinity – as an “intersection,” it addresses key questions that both help to explain, but also further trouble, the way in which the “impaired” male body is both represented and lived in China today. Although recent research across the disciplines is revealing more and more about pre-modern and contemporary understandings of, and responses to, disability in China, little is known about the way in which gendered identities intersect and interact with disabled identities. From “gentlemen” and “heroes” to “real men” and “disabled men,” this article examines dominant historical and contemporary images of masculinity and disability, and illustrates how they have come to frame the way in which disabled men have been viewed and view themselves. And, through the close reading of the memoirs of one young man, Zhang Yuncheng, it reveals the possibilities and limitations through which gendered behaviours are formed and enacted on an individual level when set against Chinese discourses of disability, normalcy, and gender.

Social Media as a Disguise and an Aid: Disabled Women in the Cyber Workforce in China

“…Such practices perpetuate the stigmatic notion that men are more competent and more likely to achieve institutional success. Also, within the bourgeoning trend of self-representation and self-advocacy of disabled people both on an individual and group level (Dauncey, 2013), disabled men seem to have more opportunities to have their voice heard and their experience understood (Dauncey, 2017). Less is known about disabled women's endeavor to live economically positive lives in contemporary Chinese society.…”

“Stammering less so that I can be more of a man”: Discourses of masculinities among young adult men in the Western Cape, South Africa, who stutter.

“…The work of Gerschick and Miller (1994; Gerschick, 1998) and Shakespeare (1999) acted as an impetus for critical studies of disabled masculinity emerging in the new millennium (Shuttleworth et al, 2012). Continuing the pattern of Shakespeare (1999), studies have investigated the intersection of disability and masculinity, including social categories such as ethnicity, prejudice, power, race, gender, and sexuality (Dauncey, 2017; Meekosha, 2006; O’Neill & Hird, 2001; Ostrander, 2008; Rapala & Manderson, 2005; Scott, 2014). Researchers have also conducted historical analyses in order to examine the how disabled men respond to dominant norms of masculinity (Gagen, 2007; Kinder, 2007).…”