Remastering the Body, Renegotiating Gender: Physical Disability and Masculinity during the First World War, the Case of J. B. Middlebrook

Abstract

By considering the case of J. B. Middlebrook, this article sets out to consider the interrelation between masculinity and male bodies as seen through the lens of male physical disability during the First World War in Britain. In considering the impact of a sudden physical impairment it is clear that disabled men were able to renegotiate their masculine identity with reference to their altered corporeal state. Within this process, hegemonic masculine ideals are able to embrace new conceptions of the self, which indicates the dynamic and flexible notion of this dominant form of gender identity. This counters the claim that disability is necessarily emasculating. It is also increasingly important to embed, where appropriate, our understanding of gender identity within the physical body.

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