Disability, masculinity, militarism: The Paralympics and the cultural (re-)production of the para-athlete-soldier.

Abstract

In this paper, we unpack the body politic of the para-athlete-soldier and its positioning within masculinising, militarised, 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 & Silk, 2020) of National Paralympic bodies offers compelling insights into contemporary disability biopolitics where sport, militarisation, gender and the neoliberal national body intersect.