What question did this study set out to answer?

This work aims to examine the intersection of care, disability, and masculinity through personal experiences.

May 14, 2026

A Letter from My Bed: Living, Breathing, Writing on Care and Disability

Key Points

This work aims to examine the intersection of care, disability, and masculinity through personal experiences.
Utilizes autoethnography to reflect on personal care experiences.
Centers on the relationality of care within diverse networks of support.
Explores themes of sexuality, religion, identity, justice, and care through daily routines.
Highlights the complexity of masculinity in caregiving relationships.
Reveals the nuanced dynamics of care from marginalized communities.
Underscores the importance of identity and relational care in understanding disability.

Abstract

Abstract: This is an autoethnographic essay about giving and receiving care with disability. This work explores the relationality of care, centering my experiences as a complexly disabled, white, queer, American man who is cared for by an extended network of Black American men of lower socioeconomic status. Care has been long theorized through the lens of "women's work" and labor, but my experiences of gendered care—receiving care from a community of men—allow me to explore the complexity of masculinity and caregiving. In this work, I move through topics, moods, and ways of being in an oppressive world. I use my daily routine from/in bed as a means to scaffold and explore questions of sexuality, religion, identity, justice, and just care.

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A Letter from My Bed: Living, Breathing, Writing on Care and Disability

Key Points

Abstract

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