Published in 2006, Lebanese novelist Alawiyya Subuh’s Dunya portrays a society that has just emerged from a lethal civil war and is attempting to heal from its long history of intense violence. In this context, women struggle the most to deconstruct and dismantle deep-seated constructions of masculinities shaped by patriarchy and sociocultural influences. Gender-based discrimination and violence, which were intensified by the war, continue to mold post-war life. However, Dunya reveals that men become trapped by these forces as well. This paper aims to investigate the ways in which social and cultural expectations of masculinity constructed during times of war harden and cultivate men’s bodies, strengthening and energizing them. Male virility is linked to violence and oppression, both psychologically and physically. When the male body is disabled and rendered impotent, however, as often occurs in the very contexts that stimulate the negotiation of new masculinities, men’s bodies lose their strength, while their minds cling to the hyper-masculinity that previously invigorated them. This paper argues that the main male character in Dunya, Malik, continues to safeguard the privileged construction of the male body he first formulated during the war even after the disappearance of his own strength and virility. He persists in expressing his hyper-masculinity in a variety of ways, including through his constant insistence on engaging in sexual activities with his wife. Malik’s nostalgia for his uninjured body demonstrates that he is also a victim of the patriarchal structures that previously empowered him. He attempts to negotiate his masculinity in the same ways he did before his injury by resorting to fantasy. The cultural imaginings of manliness and male prowess can be oppressive for men, especially when disability limits agency. At the same time, women who are the victims of patriarchal structures of exploitation find themselves even more trapped once their oppressors are disabled. In the novel, society expects Dunya, the main female character of the text, to adhere to externally assigned gender roles and express her femininity by becoming a caregiver to her husband, who must be looked after and attended to like a small child. The only hope that remains for the women in Dunya lies in dreaming and writing. They gain agency and voice by escaping into their imaginations and narrating their stories, which allows them to cope with their social entrapment.