Neal King

Firming the Floppy Penis Age, Class, and Gender Relations in the Lives of Old Men

Studies of manhood neglect the old just as social gerontology avoids theorizing masculinity, but theories of age relations have much to offer to the scholarship of men. Preliminary study of a mass-marketed program of “successful aging” suggests that old men with money to spend can consume images of themselves as young again. The authors analyze both the ageism of such a consumer regimen and its implications for old manhood in the contexts of men’s endangered physical health, unequal access to wealth, heterosexual dominance, and fears of impotency.

Ageism and Feminism: From “Et Cetera” to Center

Although womens studies scholars and activists do not deny the reality of ageism, they have relegated it to secondary status, neglecting to theorize age relations or place old age at the center of analysis. After explaining what we mean by age relations and their intersections with other inequalities, we discuss the ways in which old people are oppressed, and why age relations represent a political location that needs to be addressed in its own right. We then demonstrate ways in which feminist theories and activism might change if the focus shifted to old people.

Generic Womanhood: Gendered Depictions in Cop Action Cinema

Content analysis of 291 cop action films reveals the gendering of heroism by Hollywood filmmakers. Employing Griswolds “cultural diamond” framework, this study frames the genre as product of a Hollywood labor market dominated by men but increasingly integrated. Women among its heroes continue disproportionately to be rookies and to work a narrow range of cases involving undercover operations and the detection of serial killers. Women in cop action films are also more likely than men to begin heterosexual affairs and to arrest or kill their lovers. However, they engage in less combat and do not confront or engage in police corruption. The most aggressive uses of and contest over state power thus turn out to be mens work in these films. The genre implies a collective common sense among industry professionals about the limits of mens professional ethics and womens professional achievements.

Natural(ly) men: masculinity and gendered anti-ageing practices in Finland and the USA

ABSTRACT The neo-liberal ideologies that point to individual responsibility for risks increasingly influence countries of the global North. The anti-ageing industry reflects this dictate and encourages middle-aged people to use their products and services to manage their ageing. However, given the negative connotations attached to the term ‘anti-ageing’, which is usually seen to focus on aesthetics and thus be a womans concern, men may be likely to disavow being involved in such activities. The article uses interview data collected from men aged 42–70 from Finland and the United States of America to explore whether and how men adhere to the call to manage their ageing when such anti-ageing activities are seen to be potentially feminising. We find that these men reflected neo-liberalism in the sense that they felt that, although ageing cannot be prevented, it can be controlled. Also while they generally rejected anti-ageing products and services that they judged to affect aesthetics, they reported that they use those that they define as promoting health and performance instead. For them, masculinity is the instrumental focus on performance to the exclusion of beauty or attractiveness. Masculine anti-ageing bodily strategies must also be ‘natural’, involving hard work rather than the use of products, which they regard as never having been scientifically proven to enhance performance. Thus, in talk of their anti-ageing, men distance themselves from women.

Knowing Women: Straight Men and Sexual Certainty

This article analyzes data available in published studies of rapists’ self-reports and argues that according to their own accounts, many men developed inaccurate impressions of women’s desires through a confident form of role-taking. While rapists’ inaccuracies have been previously described as instances of “miscommunication”or lapsed role-taking, they do not always indicate lack of emotional or intellectual depth to role-taking. The article adds to the profeminist, symbolic interactionist literature on role-taking by arguingthat relations of disavowedmale-male desire andthe exchange of women make the possibility of men’s sensitive knowledge of women’s sexual desires problematic. Some of these forms of knowledge are outlined, and an approach to rape prevention is briefly suggested.

Anti-ageing Advertisements and Perceptions of Ageing

Age relations — organizational systems of inequality that privilege younger adults at the expense of old people (Calasanti, 2003) — serve to exclude old people from full citizenship. This notion of ageism goes beyond allusion to stereotypes and prejudices, and draws both from Butler’s (1969: 243) early definition as the ‘systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old’, and from Laws’ (1995: 112) argument that ageism is founded on ‘a set of oppressive social relations’. Rather than view ageism as attitude or ideas to contemplate, this perspective reveals it as group behaviours that contribute to intersecting relations of inequality by age, gender, class, sexuality, race and the like.

Old Cops: Occupational Aging in a Film Genre

Convinced that their jobs make them special and keep them connected to others, movie cops hate to retire. As stars of action cinema, they enjoy the rush of combat and the righteous work of culling the criminal herd. What happens, then, when old age begins to slow them and threaten to end their careers? Clint Eastwood, in his late seventies as of this writing, still stars in gunfighter movies, nearly forty years after his first appearance as Dirty Harry (1971). How does cop action change as stars reach retirement age?

Is Retirement a Crisis for Men? Class and Adjustment to Retirement

Because paid work is taken to be central to manhood, scholarly and popular discourse have characterized retirement as presenting a “crisis of masculinity.” However, such a crisis is not borne out by research, perhaps because scholars have not considered how class might shape masculinities and thus expectations and experiences of retirement. Using data obtained from interviews with Finnish metal workers and engineers who are either approaching retirement or recently retired, we ask whether (1) this crisis discourse is reflected in their retirement expectations, (2) it matches their actual experiences of retirement, and (3) retirement disrupts the masculinities of some class groups more than others. We find evidence of this retirement crisis discourse in our respondents’ views of retirement, but not in their actual experiences, belying the homogeneity of masculinity implied by it. Class shapes both the perceived content of crises and the actual retirement experiences.

Calling Dirty Harry a liar: a critique of displacement theories of popular criminology

Displacement analyses of popular film purport that Hollywood filmmakers dissemble the morals or implications of their stories in ways that can mislead audiences and gain hegemony. A review of the reception and scholarly analysis of Dirty Harry movies shows that such displacement theories can become influential in the absence of evidence for their central claims. Where a scholarly consensus has it that the successful sequel Magnum Force (1973) was meant to placate liberal critics and affirm its rightist message in a covert manner, accounts of its authors suggest a straightforward anti-liberalism that links bureaucracy to fascism. This paper concludes by suggesting a higher standard of evidence for theories of filmmaker intent, which focuses on industry routines and generic patterns. Where an influential theory of film has led scholars to dismiss many popular films as lies, the study of patterns and production and genre storytelling offers better potential for understanding the origins and politics – right-wing and otherwise – of popular stories of crime.

The dynamic nature of gender and aging bodies

To test a popular belief that men and women become more alike with age, we ask whether and how bodily changes that accompany aging might influence the ways that people do gender. Drawing on theories that view both gender and age as ongoing accomplishments, we use interview data gathered from people aged 42-61 years to ask whether masculinity and femininity become less relevant with age, whether people feel themselves to be less gendered. Our analysis shows, first, that respondents see manhood and womanhood as rooted in the appearances of their bodies. Second, they see these gender ideals as based on youthful standards. Third, respondents see masculinity and femininity shifting, for good and for ill with age as bodies change. Fourth, the loss of status with age produces a struggle over the extent to which they can control their bodies. We conclude that, while popular ideals of gender are based on youthful bodies, older persons still see themselves as men and women. Further, these new gender ideals challenge neither gender nor age inequalities.