Exploring Aging Masculinities

This book explores the lived, embodied experiences of aging men as a counterpoint to the weary stereotypes often imposed on them. Conventionally, in Western cultures, they are seen as inevitably in decline. The book challenges these distorted images through a detailed analysis of aging men's life stories.

"[This] book disrupts thinking and practice on men and masculinities, on age, class, gender and sexuality, and is important for policy and politics, for carers, professionals, and of course older people themselves and ourselves." - Jeff Hearn, Professor, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland; Örebro University, Sweden, and; University of Huddersfield, UK

Autorentext

David Jackson is an independent researcher and a member of the Nottingham Pensioners' Action Group. Over the last fifteen years he has focused on aging men's issues, and has set up aging men's groups and, with others, a memory work group. He has also written Unmasking Masculinity: A Critical Autobiography and Challenging Macho Values: Practical Ways of Working with Adolescent Boys (with Jonathan Salisbury).

Klappentext
This book challenges prevailing negative representations of aging men, which often revolve around a vision of inevitable decline due to retirement from the labour market. It offers an in-depth exploration of their lived, embodied experiences that takes advantage of extended interviews and commentaries. The diversity of aging men's experiences are investigated and include: different levels of physical competence; coming to terms with Parkinson's disease; the sexual practices of heterosexual and homosexual aging men; the caring strategies of aging male caregivers looking after their chronically ill partners, and; the survival strategies of ethnically diverse and working class men.
Exploring Aging Masculinities reveals that the aging process can provoke changes in the masculine identities of older men. The loss of social power and status, physical capacity and sexual potency in some aging men often leads to critical reassessment, life review and transitions. This book will be of great interest to those working in the sociology of aging and social policy, as well as professionals working with older men.

Inhalt

Foreword: Research with Older Men, Slowly; Jeff Hearn

1. Introduction

2. Research Methodology

   3. Aging Men's Embodied Selves: Rethinking Aging Men's Relationships with Their Changing Bodies

3. An Historical and Cultural Analysis of Aging Men's Sexualities in the UK

4. Learning to Live with Parkinson's and an 'Unpredictable Body' as an Aging Man: An Investigation into Age, Masculine Identity and Disability

5. The Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Men's Spousal Caregiving in the UK

6. Learning the Hidden Skills of Staying Alive: How do Some Aging Working Class Men Survive the Processes of Aging?

7. Exploring Aging Men's Embodied and Social Agency in a Free Market Economy Context

8. Towards an Ambiguous, Bodily Fragmented Standpoint on Aging Men