Norm, integration, and challenge. Representations of men with physical disabilities

Abstract

The present work analyzes male representation in the discourse of men with physical disability. Using a methodology that draws theoretically on disability and gender studies, representations were approached as discursive strategies with three evident purposes: to establish a norm of hegemonic masculinity, associated with compulsory functional normality conveyed by a rhetoric of visual wonderfulness, the adaptation of that masculinity for commercial
purposes through a realistic rhetoric; and the challenge to these processes presented by queer theory.