ABSTRACT
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities brought a paradigm shift in disability issues. The convention took a right-based approach to disability issues. It called for governments to outlaw all cultural, political, and religious practices which discriminated people with disabilities, including allowing people with disabilities to enter into romantic relationships and marriages. Romantic relationships have been used as a platform of showing masculinity by men with disabilities. Men with disabilities have limited space of expressing their masculinity because they are generally regarded as feminine. They are treated as weak and sick in most African communities. In romantic relationships, men with disabilities take the breadwinning role as a way of showing dominance. They buy romantic gifts such as gold rings and natural flowers as a way of showing dominance. Buying gifts for women is seen as an ultimate test for men. Some men with disabilities have multiple partners, but this is pointless if one is failing to provide for them. These men get advice from different sources on which gifts to buy, depending with the occasion. Social media has been the major source of information and advice for men with disabilities. It has also allowed men with disabilities to join dating sites. In Zimbabwe, dating sites are still at infant stages. However, quite a number of them have been established. The present research has shown that men with disabilities are buying these gifts as way of compensating for their perceived weakness.
