Disabled Men Research Articles

Sexual and reproductive health in men with spinal cord injury

Introduction. Sexual health is a fundamental aspect of overall well-being, quality of life, and a sense of fulfillment. A significant percentage of men with spinal cord injury (SCI) experience ejaculatory issues (95%), poor semen quality (75%), and erectile dysfunction (80%), making it impossible for them to conceive without medical assistance. Material and methods. The bibliographic resources were analyzed and selected from databases such as PubMed, SCOPUS, HINARI, and Web of Science to identify studies on the desired topic. Following the initial research, 128 items were identified, and 32 representative articles were selected for this synthesis article. Results. Damage to the spinal cord can result in partial or complete loss of function below the level of the injury. These injuries lead to impaired ejaculatory and erectile function in addition to reproductive issues, which might include abnormal sperm motility, morphology, and viability, as well as reduced spermatogenesis. Challenges such as loss of bladder and bowel function, changes in physical appearance, spasms, lack of communication, and stereotypes can affect sexual life of men with SCI. Conclusions. Studying sexual dysfunction in disabled men is essential for promoting comprehensive healthcare, supporting mental health, fostering healthy relationships, and advocating for the rights and inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Understanding the mechanisms affecting sexual function in people with SCI is of particular practical interest both in medical practice and in subsequent studies on patients.

“Ach for It”: Anthony Leigh, Autonomy, and Queer Pleasures in the Restoration Playhouse

Anthony Leigh (d. 1692) built his career as a Restoration comedic actor by playing a combination of queer, lascivious, old, and/or disabled men to audiences’ great delight. In this essay, I key in on two plays that frame Leigh’s career: Thomas Durfey’s The Fond Husband (1677) and Thomas Southerne’s Sir Anthony Love (1690). In The Fond Husband, a younger Leigh plays a “superannuated,” almost blind and almost deaf Old Fumble who, in the first act, kisses a man because he cannot navigate the heterosexual erotic economy of the play (as over-determined by able-bodiedness). Over a decade later, in Sir Anthony Love, Leigh plays an aging, queer Abbé who is so earnestly erotically invested in Love’s masculinity (unaware that Love is a woman in drag) that he attempts to seduce Love with dancing. I bring the beginning and end of Leigh’s stage life together to argue that Leigh’s body, performing queerly, asks audiences to confront the limits of pleasure in sustaining fantasies of the abled, autonomous heterosexual self. Using these two Restoration comedies that bookend Leigh’s career, I trace pleasures and queer structures of feeling experienced in the Restoration playhouse. While Durfey and Southerne’s plays-as-texts seek to discipline unruly, disabled queer bodies by making Fumble and the Abbé the punchline, Leigh’s performances open up alternative opportunities for queer pleasure. Pleasure becomes queer in its ability to undo orderings and fantasies based on autonomy (that nasty little myth). In his Apology, Colley Cibber reveals the ways that Leigh’s queerly performing body engages the bodies of audience members. In reflecting on the reading versus spectating experience, Cibber remarks, “The easy Reader might, perhaps, have been pleas’d with the Author without discomposing a Feature; but the Spectator must have heartily held his sides, or the Actor would have heartily made them ache for it” (89). Spectatorship is not a passive role, but rather a carnal interplay with the actor, and this interplay has immediate, bodily implications. Audiences laugh. They ache. They touch. Whereas the reader of a play in private can maintain composure, audiences in the theatre are contrarily discomposed, non-autonomous, and holding onto their sides. Leigh’s ability as a comedian energizes the text and produces pleasure on an immediate, corporeal level for audiences. And that pleasure is generated through stage business built on touching, feeling, and seducing male-presenting characters. Spectatorship may, in fact, be a queer experience as Leigh’s queerly performing body exposes the limits of autonomy.

Prostate-specific antigen testing in the disabled population: A cross-sectional analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS).

e17000 Background: Disabled patients are a unique minority population that may have lower literacy levels and difficulty communicating with physicians. Furthermore, their knowledge for cancer prevention recommendations is unknown. Herein, we aim to compare prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing rates and associated predictors among disabled men and non-disabled men in the USA. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study utilizing the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to analyze factors predicting PSA testing rates in men with disabilities (disabled, deaf, blind). Multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine clinically significant predictors of PSA testing in men with disabilities compared to that of the healthy cohort. Results: A total of 782 (14.6%) disabled men were compared to 4,569 (85.4%) non-disabled men. Disabled men were older with a mean age of 65.0 ± 14.2 vs. 55.0 ± 15.9 years (p < 0.001). On multivariable analysis, after adjusting for all available confounders including race, age, geographical region, survey year, marital status, health insurance, healthcare provider, amongst others, men with any disability were less likely to undergo PSA screening (OR 0.772, 95% CI 0.623-0.956, p = 0.018). Variables associated with increased PSA screening rates included age, having a healthcare provider or health insurance, and living with a partner. Although prostate cancer detection rates were shown to be higher among disabled men, this did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions: Our data suggests that significant inequalities in PSA screening exist among men with disabilities in the USA, with disabled men, especially the deaf and the blind, being less likely to be offered PSA screening. There is a clear need to implement strategies to reduce existing gaps in the care of disabled men and strive to reach equality in PSA screening in this unique population.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE EXPERIENCES OF YOUTH WITH DISABILITIES IN ZIMBABWE

Over 120 million youth with disabilities around the world face challenges related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, such as unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and forced abortions and sterilisations. The main causes are cultural, legal, political, and social practices that restrict their rights. Our study explored sexual expectations and experiences of youth with disabilities. We conducted a qualitative study of 20 youth with disabilities using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, and then applied a thematic analysis of the data. The findings reveal that youth with disabilities are discriminated against with regard to accessing SRH information. This early exclusion results in discriminatory treatment at other stages of their lives, such as the onset of sexual relationships and marriage. They may also indulge in risky sexual behaviours which expose them to sexually transmitted diseases. Conversely, engaging in relationships, marriage and parenthood brings positive results, especially to women with disabilities. Marrying a non-disabled partner is viewed by disabled men as countering social discrimination. Some of the experiences suggest that parenthood has potential for bringing new status and social capital to persons with disabilities. Our primary recommendations based on this research are that youth-focused SRH schemes need to be redesigned to serve the public health needs of youth with disabilities, a vulnerable population that remains excluded from programming; and girls and women with disabilities should be especially targeted within these redesigned SRH programmes.

Marriages among people with disabilities in 19th-century Sweden: marital age and spouse’s characteristics

ABSTRACT While marrying was an expected event in 19th-century Western society and has been subject to much historical research, there are few studies on how disabilities influenced people’s marriage patterns and spouse selection. The aim of this analysis is to contribute clarification on this issue by examining with whom disabled men and women married and the marital age and socio-demographic characteristics of them and their spouses. In total, 188 disabled individuals born in the first half of the 19th century and who married in the Sundsvall region, Sweden, are studied. The results reveal that disabled men and women did not marry each other, and they entered into marriage at a slightly higher age than the average, although there was usually no marked age gap between them and their spouse. Endogamous patterns were primarily found regarding the socio-spatial background of the two spouses. This analysis is one of the few studies identifying the marriages among a comparatively large number of disabled people using demographic data. Their participation in the partner pool highlight their agency historically and emphasize that disability did not lead to distance from social life in past society.

Study on Brain Plasticity of EEG Signals Based on Motor Imagination Training

To explore the effects of hand motion imagery on brain plasticity for use in guiding disabled people to use robotic arms, this paper designed a comparison experiment between the disabled and normal people, and collected the EEG data of 4 subjects (2 disabled men who lost their right hands and 2 normal men) for five weeks of training. What’s more, this paper compared and analyzed the collected EEG rhythm through the brain topographic map. The results showed that after training, the disabled people could produce ERD in both the μ and β frequency bands, and the longer the training time, the more obvious the ERD phenomenon was. This paper also uses the common space pattern algorithm and support vector machine to extract and classify the features of EEG signals. The results show that the classification accuracy of the disabled can reach more than 85%, and that of the normal can reach more than 90%. Based on the results of brain topographical map and classification, this paper concludes that motor imagination training can have a positive effect on the brain of people with impaired motor area, which provides a neurophysiological basis for the extensive application of motor imagination training in the field of rehabilitation.

A study on intersectional discrimination in employment against disabled women in the UK

The present study examined the employment status of disabled and nondisabled men and women in the United Kingdom. Using the 2009–14 Life Opportunities Survey (N = 32,355 observations), the study empirically examined how the intersection of disability and gender affects disabled women and their employment status in the UK. Random effects multinomial and logistic regression models were used. Findings indicated that disabled women were significantly less likely to be employed and more likely to be economically inactive than disabled men, nondisabled women, and nondisabled men. They were also significantly the least likely to work full-time among the four groups. Disabled women were significantly less likely to be supervisors than disabled men and felt more limited in the type or amount of paid work they could do than nondisabled women. The present study provided empirical evidence to policymakers interested in developing policies that better address intersectional discrimination and enhance disabled women’s employment status.

Does sexual orientation vary between disabled and non-disabled men? findings from a population-based study of men in Australia

Some research suggests that disabled people are more likely to be sexual minorities than non-disabled people, but this evidence comes mainly from younger or older populations. We used data from a large survey of Australian men aged 18–55 to examine the relationship between disability and minority sexual orientations. Results from our statistical analyses suggest that a larger proportion of disabled than non-disabled men are sexual minorities. Our estimates showed that disabled men were at least twice as likely as non-disabled men to be attracted to females and males, not experience sexual attraction, identify as bisexual, identify as homosexual and have female and male sexual partners—relative to the likelihood of female-only attraction, heterosexual identity and female-only sexual partners. Findings provide new information about sexual diversity in disabled versus non-disabled Australian men, which can help inform inclusive service provision and identify avenues for future research about sexual minority disabled people.

Wage structure differential and disability in Brazil — Underperformance or discrimination?

In 2013, 7.32% of the Brazilian population, or almost 15 million people, declared that they had some disability. Based on empirical evidence, this study sought to answer the following three questions: 1) Are men with disabilities paid less in the Brazilian labor market? 2) If so, is this predominantly due to differences in individual socioeconomic characteristics, underperformance, or is it a case of discrimination? 3) What are the main determinants of wage differential among disabled men? To answer these questions, we used data from a sample of men aged 18–65 working in Brazil’s private sector to estimate Tobit wage equations and perform a twofold decomposition of the disabled-nondisabled wage differential by applying the traditional Oaxaca-Blinder technique. DeLeire (2001) methodology was then employed to isolate the roles of discrimination and underperformance in the analysis, which was performed separately by the severity of the disability effect on activities. It was found that male employees with disabilities that limit daily activities earn lower wages than comparably employed nondisabled men and that this difference increases with the severity of the disability; that the estimated wage differentials were associated with both discrimination and underperformance, especially the latter; that there was a wage “reward” for the disabled positively correlated with their level of education; that the onset period of a disability did not significantly affect wages; and that men with intellectual disabilities are the most wage disadvantaged. These results provide useful information for policy makers in Brazil when allocating resources to support people with disabilities.

Precarious belonging: blindness, masculinity, and work in Polish young adult literature of the 1970s and 1980s

ABSTRACTThis article explores the relationship between disability, identity, and productivity in two Polish young adult novels published under state socialism: Jak trudno kochać (How difficult it is to love) and Spotkania (The meetings). How Difficult it is to Love by Jerzy Szczygieł (1976) tells the story of a young blind man who, after living many years “unproductively” with his mother, decides to study and work. Published in 1986, Klementyna Sołonowicz-Olbrychska’s novel The Meetings also focuses on a blind male teenager who leaves his hometown to live with other blind students at a residential school where he plans a future profession. The two works are concerned with the processes of becoming disabled and becoming a part of the blind community. Crucially, it is productivity – the main value in a socialist state – that participates in the formation of disability identity and enables disabled men to form separate communities and workshops for disabled people.

John Galsworthy's Conscience and First World War Disablement

The article traces, from a literary perspective, John Galsworthy's (1867–1933) conscience in his fictional depictions and non-fictional discussions of those damaged and disabled by World War One. It notes that, for the duration of the War, Galsworthy was tireless in his writing crusade on topics relating to the hostilities, but fell silent on these matters after the War, when he returned to his much broader range of topics. Through its references to both narratives and essays, the article demonstrates Galsworthy's strong advocacy for restoring disabled men to dignified work and self-respect, whereby they can continue to fulfil their vital masculine role in society, including their romantic life. As is shown in the article, Galsworthy believed that this restorative period could involve re-training for more challenging work than men had undertaken before the War. The article stresses Galsworthy's holistic approach to men's restoration in his constant reminder to the nation that, for this to take place, both the mind and the body need equally to be healed. While adequate resources were needed for rehabilitation requiring training establishments and technology for prosthetic limbs, often the most effective psychological restoration entailed no funds at all, especially when it encompassed therapy through women's beauty and through the human-animal bond. The article includes Galsworthy's wider focus, too, on civilian adults and children who were wounded and disabled by the War. It also compares Galsworthy's views on rehabilitation and healing with those of modern commentators, and illustrates how, for his time, some of his ideas were particularly advanced.

The Issue of Gender in Relation to Mental Distress: Reflections on the Gendered Character of Disability and Resistance

Neither gender studies nor disability research/disability studies have explored gender to a great extent, especially in relation to disabled men or disabled women. In this article we reflect upon the issue of gender in relation to experiences of mental distress by drawing explicitly on some powerful narratives. Those narratives are argued to show the gendered character of disability and resistance; and display that the social forces and processes that construct and give shape to disability and gender are closely intermeshed. We argue that the gendered character of disablism and resistance should be further studies in the light of the new theoretical development that has been created, because gender matters.

Gentlemen, Heroes, Real Men, Disabled Men: Explorations at the Intersections of Disability and Masculinity in Contemporary China

This article advances new perspectives on disability culture in contemporary China. Using gender – specifically masculinity – as an “intersection,” it addresses key questions that both help to explain, but also further trouble, the way in which the “impaired” male body is both represented and lived in China today. Although recent research across the disciplines is revealing more and more about pre-modern and contemporary understandings of, and responses to, disability in China, little is known about the way in which gendered identities intersect and interact with disabled identities. From “gentlemen” and “heroes” to “real men” and “disabled men,” this article examines dominant historical and contemporary images of masculinity and disability, and illustrates how they have come to frame the way in which disabled men have been viewed and view themselves. And, through the close reading of the memoirs of one young man, Zhang Yuncheng, it reveals the possibilities and limitations through which gendered behaviours are formed and enacted on an individual level when set against Chinese discourses of disability, normalcy, and gender.

한국 소설에 재현된 다문화 사회 장애 남성상

한국 소설에 재현된 다문화 사회 장애 남성상

Seeing Privilege Where It Isn’t: Marginalized Masculinities and the Intersectionality of Privilege

When discussing privilege, we often consider it a zero‐sum quantity, one either has it or one does not. Since privilege is distributed along a range of axes, we consider three sites in which male privilege is compromised by marginalization by other statuses: disability status, sexuality, and class. Employing a Symbolic Interactionist approach, derived from Erving Goffman's Stigma (1963), we observe strategies employed by disabled men, gay men and working class men to reduce, neutralize, or resist the problematization of masculinity as a constitutive element of their marginalization by class, sexuality, or disability.

Affirmative action and disability in South Africa

Disability is the Cinderella of the historically disadvantaged groups targeted by affirmative action (AA) in South Africa. The Employment Equity Act identifies people with disabilities as one of the targets of the act. Government set the numerical goal as 2 per cent – a goal not yet achieved. Within the achievements so far, the trends noted for the general population of working age hold for the disabled population of working age. Proportionately, more disabled men are employed than disabled women, more disabled white people than disabled black people, and more disabled white men in the more senior positions. The focus of the paper is thus on understanding this lag in achieving the numerical quota and how to move forward. People with disabilities experience significant disadvantage in the area of employment, which, in turn, has significant repercussions on their psychological, social and economic wellbeing. It is, therefore, important to look further at the barriers that hinder the employment of people with disabilities. These include physical accessibility of the environment and information, transport, attitudes of others (e.g. employers and co-workers) and additional costs of managing one’s disability. The factors such as levels of employment, political will, policies and provision of services (eg health, welfare and employment) are those that create more context specific experiences. The lack of skills and basic education were reported by many South African disabled respondents as being a major factor in their status as unemployed. The delivery, nature and structure of the education that one receives is one of the initial formative steps determining one’s socialisation into society. There is a complex interplay between poverty, disability and social assistance programmes which can have a significant impact on the employment of and job seeking by people with disabilities. South Africa is unusual in combining high unemployment rates with good social assistance programmes. There is a strong business, social, psychological and political case in increasing employment of people with disabilities. The policy of affirmative action is good but we are not meeting the targets. The situation in South Africa is a complex interaction including a number of confounding factors – high unemployment, good social assistance, and people with disabilities with low levels of skills. Pro-active and constructive approaches need to be adopted to ensure that people with disabilities are fully included in the labour market. It is the right and good thing to do, not only for disabled people but for all people.

Cultural stereotypes of disabled and non‐disabled men and women: Consensus for global category representations and diagnostic domains

Despite the fact that disabled people comprise a heterogeneous social group, cross-impairment cultural stereotypes reflect a consistent set of beliefs used to characterize this population as dependent, incompetent, and asexual. Using a free-response methodology, stereotypical beliefs about disabled men (DM) and women (DW) were contrasted against the stereotypes of their non-disabled counterparts illustrating the dimensions considered most diagnostic of each group. Results revealed that both disabled and non-disabled participants expressed consensus about the contents of group stereotypes that exaggerate traditional gender role expectations of the non-disabled while minimizing perceived differences between DM and DW. Implications for the field of stereotyping and prejudice, and the individual and system justifying functions of cultural stereotypes are discussed.

Risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in disability pensioners aged 40—42 years: A cross-sectional study in Norway

Few disability pensions at the age of 40 in Norway are granted due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) or diabetes, but disability pensioners have an excess mortality of these diseases. In this study, we aim to present risk factors for CVD and diabetes in young disability pensioners, compared with persons able to work. A population-based survey of Norwegian men and women aged 40-42 years was conducted in 1997-1999, with 62,778 participants. Disability pensioners (n= 2636) and other non-working persons (n = 5105) were compared with persons able to work. Risk factors were compared in persons without CVD and diabetes. Prevalence of self-reported CVD and diabetes was markedly higher in disability pensioners than in persons able to work. In persons without these diseases, we found elevations of all measured risk factors were more prevalent in disabled men and women. Myocardial infarction risk was about 50% higher in disability pensioners. Disability pensioners were more physically inactive and obese; they smoked more and had lipid disorders with elevated total cholesterol, low high-density lipoprotein (hdl)-cholesterol and elevated triglycerides. Other non-working persons had less pronounced elevations of most of the risk factors. A high proportion of disability pensioners and others not working at the age of 40 had an elevated risk for CVD and diabetes.

T10-P-04 No barriers sex. The Kamasutra for disabled people: a short guide to a creative and recreational sexuality of the male disabled subject

One of the issues about disabled people's sexuality (DSex) concerns its purposes. The aim of their sexlife should be the achievement of the highest possible autonomy, granting them a condition of self-determination. This principle has often been replaced by that of the lowest indispensable autonomy. This lack is due to erroneous beliefs, led by irrationality and prejudices; frequently the opinion about this issue ranges from the sex denial to the credence of it as useless and spoiled. Parents themselves defend their disabled children by creating a world without sex. Sometimes the lack of the importance of sexuality depends on the disabled subject, especially when disabilities follow to strong traumas, and just later on he will renovate interest for sex. Thanks to the progress in Andrology and Reproductive Medicine, there has been a new propensity to acknowledge the right of DSex; physicians can help disabled men to live sexuality naturally thanks to new correct approaches, which supply a suitable option for them and their partner. The discovery of a different sexual ability becomes a sublimation of individual creativity, embodying a right to sexuality that the UN itself has granted to disabled people. In 2003, European Year of People with Disabilities, we reported all that in a publication, for physicians, disabled and their families, with practical advices for sexuality, commenting in a scientific way, and with some irony, the Kamasutra for disabled people's images. Purpose of this job is to testify our experience in the support of DSex and their procreative projects.

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

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.