CARBON FIBRE MASCULINITY

Abstract:

This article examines material economies of carbon fibre as a prosthetic form of masculinity. The paper advances three main arguments. Firstly, carbon fibre can be a site in which disability is overcome, an act of overcoming that is affected through masculinized technology. Secondly, carbon fibre can be a homosocial surface; that is, carbon fibre becomes both a surface extension of the self and a third-party mediator in homosocial relationships, a surface that facilitates intimacy between men in ways that devalue femininity in both male and female bodies. Carbon fibre surfaces are material extensions of subjectivity, and carbon fibre surfaces are vectors of the cultural economies of masculine competition. Thirdly, the article gives an account of Oscar Pistorius as an example of the masculinization of carbon fibre, and the associated binding of a psychic attitude of misogyny and power to a form of violent and competitive masculine subjectivity. The paper unpacks the affects, economies and surfaces of “carbon fibre masculinity” and discusses Pistorius’ use of carbon fibre, homosociality and misogyny as forms of protest masculinity through which he unconsciously attempted to recuperate his gendered identity from emasculating discourses of disability.

Keywords:

• disability
• masculinity
• homosociality
• surfaces
• hegemony

Notes

Thanks so very much to Tim Laurie and also Charlie Blake for their patience in what was a very laboured and slow process of bringing this paper into the world. Thanks also to Rob Imrie for useful conversations about disability and Rebecca Coleman for a very sympathetic read and generous feedback. Thanks also to both blind reviewers for their kind encouragement and astute comments.

1 Oscar Pistorius is a South African sprint runner who runs with artificial limbs from his knees down. His legs were amputated below the knee at eleven years of age (“Oscar Pistorius”). A Paralympics sprint champion, at the 2011 World Championship in Athletics, held in South Korea, Pistorius became the first amputee to receive a silver medal for participating in the 4 × 400 metre relay, representing South Africa (“Oscar Pistorius”).