ABSTRACT
The damage explored in this chapter is that endured by the man affected by an impairment, either by birth or in adult life, which makes him dependent on the help of others. The focus falls on two documentary films released in 2016: Roger Ross Williams's Life, Animated and Clay Tweel's Gleason. Masculinity and disability interact in complex ways that are still poorly understood, due to the little attention paid to specific cases. As the chapter shows, the life of a young man affected by autism since early childhood (Owen Suskind in Life, Animated) is very different from that of an adult husband and father affected by ALS, a degenerative neurological disease (former NFL player Steve Gleason in Gleason). Whereas Owen lacks a full awareness of normative masculinity, Gleason struggles to preserve his former heroic masculinity by becoming an activist. Both Suskind and Gleason are nonetheless, as noted, dependent men, a condition which the documentaries try to downplay optimistically by highlighting other key issues: Owen's ability to communicate despite his autism and Steve's caring sense of fatherhood.
