Exploring Aging Masculinities: The Body, Sexuality and Social Lives PDF
Preview Exploring Aging Masculinities: The Body, Sexuality and Social Lives
Exploring Aging Masculinities AlsobyDavidJackson UNMASKINGMASCULINITY ACriticalAutobiography CHALLENGINGMACHOVALUES(withJonathanSalisbury) PracticalWaysofWorkingwithAdolescentBoys SCREAMINGMEN PoemsaboutMenandMasculinities MEN’SSTORIESFORACHANGE AgeingMenRemember DESTROYINGTHEBABYINTHEMSELVES WhyDidtheTwoBoysKillJamesBulger? THEFEAROFBEINGSEENASWHITELOSERS White,WorkingClassMasculinitiesandtheKillingofStephenLawrence CONTINUITYINSECONDARYENGLISH ENCOUNTERSWITHBOOKS TeachingFiction11–16 Exploring Aging Masculinities The Body, Sexuality and Social Lives David Jackson IndependentResearcher,UK Palgrave macmillan EXPLORINGAGINGMASCULINITIES:THEBODY,SEXUALITYANDSOCIALLIVES ©DavidJackson,2016 Foreword©JeffHearn2016 Softcoverreprintofthehardcover1stedition978-1-137-52756-1 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission.Noportionofthis publicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmittedsavewithwritten permission.InaccordancewiththeprovisionsoftheCopyright,Designs andPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicencepermittinglimited copyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,SaffronHouse, 6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Firstpublished2016by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills, Basingstoke,Hampshire,RG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofNatureAmerica,Inc.,One NewYorkPlaza,Suite4500,NewYork,NY10004-1562. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. ISBN978-1-137-52756-1 E-PDFISBN:978–1–137–52757–8 DOI:10.1057/9781137527578 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Jackson,David,1940– Title:Exploringagingmasculinities:thebody,sexualityandsociallives/ DavidJackson,IndependentResearcher,UK. Description:NewYork:PalgraveMacmillan,2016. | Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2015032827 | Subjects:LCSH:Oldermen—GreatBritain—Psychology. | Masculinity— GreatBritain. | Aging—GreatBritain. | Lifestyles—GreatBritain. Classification:LCCHQ1064.G7J332016 | DDC305.26/10941—dc23 LCrecordavailableathttp://lccn.loc.gov/2015032827 AcataloguerecordforthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. Contents Foreword:ResearchwithOlderMen,Slowly vi Preface ix Acknowledgements xvii 1 Introduction 1 2 ResearchMethodology 27 3 AgingMen’sEmbodiedSelves:RethinkingAgingMen’s RelationshipswiththeirChangingBodies 38 4 AnHistoricalandCulturalAnalysisofAgingMen’s SexualitiesintheUK 56 5 LearningtoLivewithParkinson’sand‘AnUnpredictable Body’asanAgingMan:AnInvestigationintoAge, MasculineIdentityandDisability 89 6 TheChallengesandOpportunitiesofAgingMen’sSpousal Caregiving 102 7 LearningtheHiddenSkillsofStayingAlive:HowdoSome AgingWorking-ClassMenSurvivetheProcessesofAging? 122 8 ExploringAgingMen’sEmbodiedandSocialAgencyina FreeMarketEconomyContext 145 9 Conclusion 168 Notes 179 Bibliography 182 Index 192 v Foreword: Research with Older Men, Slowly Aging:Age,aging,aged;gender,gendering,gendered–notethediffer- ences:agingmeansgettingolder,whilegenderingmeansmanydifferent relationstogender;agedmeansold,whilegenderedmeansmanythings andrelations.Thetemptationtofollowthesingulartimelineofageis strong and embedded in language. Age is still naturalized. We all die, butinthemeantimealotofdifferencespersistinhowages,agings,and agednesseswork. Time: I am nearly 68, not so different from some of the men you will shortlymeetinthisbook... Asyouage,yougetneareryourowndeath,increasinglyso.Asyouage, the probability of hearing of the deaths of friends and colleagues gets greater,unlessyougetveryoldinwhichcaseitmaybethatmostorall ofyourcontemporarieshavedied. Time gets more precious; it speeds up; we are on an accelerating escalator. At the same time, life often slows down in some ways, physically, socially,mentally.Yettheideathatagingissimplyatimeofemptiness issurelymisplaced. Timespeedsupandslowsdownatthesametime. Gender: And then add to this gender, in this case the gendering of men...imagesofmenandmasculinityaresodominatedbyyoungmen andmenofmiddleyearsthatitishardlynoticedthatthemeaningsof menandmasculinitiesdifferat18and80. Men do not, usually at least, suddenly become old or very old, or younger old, or older old. This builds on their earlier lives as workers, fathers, singles, unemployed, and so on – and also on their embodied, ethnic,class,sexual,intersectionalandemotionallives.Theyaresimul- taneously old and not old, men and not men. It is wrong to define vi Foreword:ResearchwithOlderMen,Slowly vii these people as only men or only anything, whatever the structural advantagesmenhold. Writing,...and reading: How on earth can you write about aging, that is old and older aging? And when this happens to be focused on aging that is the aging of older men what happens then? Is this yet another male sexual narrative or a deep fissure from that? How do you put all this into words on the page? David Jackson’s book dares to do just that, with a subtle and nuanced analysis of the complexity, the ambiguous, bodily fragmented complexity, of older men’s lives. It is based primarily and importantly on very unusual, perhaps unique, set of data on a diverse selection of older men’s lives, through no less than a five-fold interview or conversation process, what the author calls “intimate conversations”. As the author points out, this focus on intimate conversations between the research partici- pantsandtheresearcherisprobablythemostdistinctivefeatureofthis book. The book is exceptional in terms of the length of time of these inti- mate conversations and this “slow research” as a whole process. This showstheimportanceofdevelopingnew,different,politicallyinformed methodologiesinresearchingonandwitholder,slower,lessspeedypeo- ple, sometimes with clear disabilities, sometimes not or less visibly so. Italsospeakstotheneedforcareful,slowerreading,nottheridiculous soundbiteoftheheadlineorthefetishizedacademicarticle. Biography and history: This extended work is contextualized in rela- tiontothreemainbodiesofwork:first,broadercriticalresearchstudies of men and masculinities; second, intersections of age, class and gen- der; and,third,historical,political-economicchangeover the lifetimes ofthemeninterviewed. Men’s lives as older men or older old men are to be understood both biographicallyandhistorically,intheirgenderedhistorical-biographical contexts. This study lays the basis for a broader biographical approach tomen,agingandgender.Thereisthusaspecialfocusofissuesofaging, work,health,disabilityandthebodymoregenerally. Old age is also the time when material resources fork – from the pro- tectedandcushionedveryricholdtothedesperateandverypoorold– hence the significance of older, ‘grey’ and pensioner activisms. These blatant divergences may die with the individuals, yet are continued throughandfortheinheritorsoftherich. viii Foreword:ResearchwithOlderMen,Slowly Please read it: The book disrupts thinking and practice on men and masculinities, on age, class, gender and sexuality, and is important for policyandpolitics,forcarers,professionals,andofcourseolderpeople themselvesandourselves. Burning: ‘Old age should burn and rage at close of day’ wrote Dylan Thomas. JeffHearn,Helsinki,April2015 Preface In an article I wrote for the Auto/Biography journal called, ‘Beyond one-dimensional models of masculinity: A life-course perspective on the processes of becoming masculine’ (2003), I talk about the histori- callyunique,socialspace(betweenretirementanddeath)thatisslowly emerging in the lives of older men. I also suggest that this unique, social space might prove to be a creative space for re-thinking old age together with a critical re-assessment and possible re-formulation of conventional,masculineidentities. Insomeways,thisiswhatIhavetriedtodointhisbook.Attheage of 75 I have started to connect old age studies with the critical men and masculinity field. As one reviewer commented, ‘There has been insufficient attention devoted to the intersection between aging and masculinity in both the gerontological and the masculinity academic literatureandthisbookaddressesthegap.’ TheformofresearchmethodologythatIhavechosenforthisinvesti- gation–aqualitative,‘intimateconversation’typeofresearchprocess– is a deliberately appropriate form of research to use with aging men. The extended interview processes keeps pace with the daily rhythms anddeepeningagesoftheresearchparticipants. In writing this book I have also become aware of a new, reading public, particularly in the 50+ section of the population. There is a broader, more diverse reading public now taking shape out there who are thoughtful and curious and want to make sense of their changing lives. This emerging group are not just younger academics but older women and men who want to engage with the dilemmas and oppor- tunitiesoftheagingprocess.Iverymuchhopethisbookreachesoutto thesenewvoicesinreadinggroupsaswellasinHigherEducation. Lookingagainattheinter-relationsbetweenoldageandmasculinities, Ineedtoacknowledgethatoldageisunignorablypresentinmyevery- daylifeinallitssuddenswerves,alterationsandmovements.Asaresult, I have expanded and deepened my research interests in aging men’s lived experiences and also in the complex biographies of eight, other, agingmenaswellasalivingcuriosityaboutmyownlife. In terms of critical men and masculinities, I think readers probably needawiderbackgroundofgenderrelationsandsexualpoliticstointro- duce them to how the author has gradually developed an interest in ix
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