Constructions and Performances of Disabled Masculinities in Online Disability Platforms

Online spaces have opened up many possibilities for people with disabilities (PWD) to interact with the social world designed for the able-bodied as well as create their own virtual communities. The lack of visual cues in virtual environments eliminates prejudices and stigma attached to impairments, enabling PWDs to be free from judgment based on their disabilities. On the other hand, there is a growing literature on how PWD experience digital inequality and inaccessibility as digital media builds on assumptions about embodiment and personhood (e.g. Dobransky and Hargittai 2016, Ginsburg 2017). However, there has been much less scholarly attention to how PWD interact in online spaces in gendered ways (e.g. Forman et al. 2012) and how gender stereotypes inform the ways in which bodies are drawn on in cyberculture (Springer 1993). Within this literature, there is even more limited focus on how masculinities and disabilities intersect in online identity construction and interaction.

This paper deals with how disabled masculinities are constructed and performed in online spaces, focusing on one of the largest online disability portals in Turkey, Engelliler.biz (The disabled.us), with over 120 thousand topics and 1.3 million messages. Based on content analysis of the selected forum messages on Engelliler.biz and semi-structured in-depth interviews with disabled users of the portal, this paper explores how disabled masculinities are negotiated online, addressing questions of (i) different forms of masculine identities and performances emerging in interactions and (ii) intersecting aspects crucial in the emergence of these masculinities (e.g. war disability creating a distinctive masculine identity). The paper thus explores the interaction between the gendered impaired body and technology to better understand the implications for online identity management.