"A Lame Person Is the One Who Has Balls": Motor Disability, Adaptive Sports, and Hegemonic Masculinity in Buenos Aires

Authors

  • Carolina Ferrante Universidad de Buenos Aires
  • Jimena Silva Universidad Católica del Norte

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-18.3.2442

Keywords:

disability, social models, hegemonic masculinity, adaptive sports, ideology of capacity, able bodied, qualitative research, in-depth interviews, content analysis

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the role of hegemonic masculinity in adaptive sports for persons with motor disabilities in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hegemonic masculinity represents an ideal of manhood in which men construct their gender identity. In order to understand how masculinity influences adaptive sports, we analyzed the content of magazines produced by the first club for people with motor disabilities in Buenos Aires and conducted in-depth interviews with 26 experts in adaptive sports and rehabilitation, and 21 male athletes who are physically challenged. We found that hegemonic masculinity plays a pivotal role in the philosophy of adaptive sports that instils a particular way of understanding disability, associated with the native "lame" category, and that promotes a "champion's culture" of the able bodied and the values associated with that model of masculinity. Those physically challenged individuals who developed adaptive sports in Buenos Aires created the category "lame" to refer to themselves. Through sports a "champion's culture" is promoted that imposes imperatives of normalization and constantly overcoming obstacles. While the "champion's culture" questions the stigmatizing nature of disability (the presumed sexual incapacity, non-productivity and dependence), it imposes an ideology of capacity that reproduces oppressive social structures.

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Author Biographies

Carolina Ferrante, Universidad de Buenos Aires

Carolina FERRANTE, socióloga, doctora en ciencias sociales e investigadora asistente del Instituto Interdisciplinario de Estudios de Género de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)/Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Su área de interés la constituye el abordaje crítico de la discapacidad. Entre los tópicos que ha investigado se encuentran: el deporte adaptado, el cuerpo discapacitado, las prácticas de mendicidad de las personas con discapacidad, las políticas de discapacidad y los modelos conceptuales de abordaje de la discapacidad.

Jimena Silva, Universidad Católica del Norte

Jimena SILVA, psicóloga, doctora en antropología, profesora asociada e investigadora Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN). Responsable de la línea de investigación: género, sexualidad y juventudes. Ha desarrollado modelos metodológicos de investigación biográfica para los estudios del cuerpo desde enfoques socioculturales y críticos. Ha realizado etnografías en comunidades y organizaciones campesinas, investigación acción con juventudes y mujeres inmigrantes. Ha publicado artículos, capítulos de libros y libros en su línea de investigación, en Chile y el extranjero. Actualmente se centra en el estudio de las masculinidades en el ámbito de la minería.

Published

2017-07-25

How to Cite

Ferrante, C., & Silva, J. (2017). "A Lame Person Is the One Who Has Balls": Motor Disability, Adaptive Sports, and Hegemonic Masculinity in Buenos Aires. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-18.3.2442

Issue

Section

Single Contributions