Men, Masculinities, and Aging: The Gendered Lives of Older Men

by Edward H. Thompson, Jr.

Overview

Men, Masculinities, and Aging introduces readers to the gendered nature of aging men’s lives. Edward H. Thompson, noted for his work on men and aging, explores the intersections of ethnicities, class, geographies, generations, and masculinities. The book offers a fresh perspective on men’s experiences with bodily aging, growing older in an ageist society, and navigating the virtual absence of cultural guidelines for being an aging man. The book also provides a sociological theory framework on how men navigate their social aging as they experience later life and very late life. Turning points such as grandfathering, the changeover from work to retirement, and the onset of health problems or becoming a career are discussed at length as Thompson frames these natural occurrences as now ordinary experiences as aging masculinities are no longer rarities. The book will provide educators, students, researchers, and practitioners a means to question standard assumptions about aging men and discuss what underlies most later-life masculinities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442278554
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/18/2018
Series:	Diversity and Aging
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Edward H. Thompson, Jr. is professor emeritus of sociology at the College of Holy Cross. He is noted for his research on gender relations and family life and is the author or editor of several books, including Older Men’s Lives, Men as Caregivers, and A Man’s Guide to Healthy Aging. He is active in the Gerontological Society of America.

Table of Contents

Introduction I: Masculinities and Aging 1 Masculinities 2 Negotiating Age Relations and Aging 3 Aging Bodies: Our Corporeality 4 Bodies, Habitus, and Age II: Health as Men Age 5 Wrestling with Aging 6 Health Inequalities 7 Sexual Health III: Social Worlds of Old Men 8 Social Relationships 9 Intimacies and Sexuality 10 Caring 11 Facing Later Life as an Old Widower 12 Late Life and Its Fourth Age Culture Epilogue References About the Author

Editorial Reviews

[The book] brings together a mass of information and analyses, based on the author’s very wide knowledge, and reviews many studies, including the author’s own, but especially those of other researchers. It is solidly empirical and based, along with intersectionality and critical gerontology, in the developing tradition of critical studies of men, masculinities, and aging.. .. Men, Masculinities, and Aging will be especially useful in studies on gender and sexuality, social care and social work, health, and social gerontology. I see the book as mainly for educators, students, and researchers, but professionals and practitioners would also find much of interest here in suggesting more flexible approaches to policy and practice. Being jam-packed full of research results and insights makes it a valuable reference text: for example, for students seeking summaries of relevant studies. I think this book.. . will become a standard text on men, masculinities, and aging.. .. this is a major contribution in gathering together empirical material on old men’s lived experiences, and is a must-buy for all interested in the topic.

The Gerontologist

Ed Thompson draws deep from his impressive expertise to provide an encyclopedic look at theory and research on aging masculinity. Listening to old men, he shows that they remain men even as they slow down, stand down from the combat of youth, and slim their social networks with advancing age. This book amounts to a vital survey of the rapidly growing field that Thompson pioneered.

Neal King

Men, Masculinities and Aging is an excellent, enjoyable read which comprehensively covers the gendered lives of older men. It provides a critical analysis of the gendered lives of older men drawing attention to masculinities, health and the social worlds of older men. I will certainly be recommending this book to my third year elective module on the psychology of aging and to my graduate students.
 

Kate Bennett

In what will be a seminal work in the field, Men, Masculinities, and Aging fuses multiple theoretical and disciplinary traditions and gives voice to the gendered lives of old men through careful and novel theoretical analysis and vivid narratives.

Adam Shapiro