ABSTRACT
In a 2014 installment of the YouTube series “Get Mighty with Minsky,” disabled Marine veteran Alex Minsky responds to questions from fans inspired by his drive and determination despite the amputation of one leg from the knee down after a battle injury. The fans are also inspired by the buff body that his rigorous exercise routine has produced, and that Minsky has put on display in his successful postmilitary career as a male model. Reading a message from a fan who asks, “How do you, as a straight guy, feel about the attention you get from the gay community?” Minsky replies, looking into the camera to engage his questioner directly, “I don’t mind it at all. I appreciate it, thank you very much. . . . Carry on!” (Minsky). As this chapter will demonstrate, the affirmation and acceptance of sexual difference displayed by this heterosexual veteran who has so effectively transcended the constraints of a physical disability is a phenomenon specific to an era in which the construction of masculinity seems inflected by an acute awareness of the fact that men look at other men. Alex Minsky’s rise to celebrity status evidences an intricate connection between vulnerability and strength in recent manifestations of gay male desire, through the display of a firm and able body that registers as “sexy” not only despite the visible mark of vulnerability at the site of his amputation, but also because of it.
