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.
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).
Foreword: Research with Older Men, Slowly; Jeff Hearn1. Introduction2. Research Methodology3. Aging Men's Embodied Selves: Rethinking Aging Men's Relationships with Their Changing Bodies4. An Historical and Cultural Analysis of Aging Men's Sexualities in the UK5. Learning to Live with Parkinson's and an 'Unpredictable Body' as an Aging Man: An Investigation into Age, Masculine Identity and Disability6. The Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Men's Spousal Caregiving in the UK7. Learning the Hidden Skills of Staying Alive: How do Some Aging Working Class Men Survive the Processes of Aging?8. Exploring Aging Men's Embodied and Social Agency in a Free Market Economy Context9. Towards an Ambiguous, Bodily Fragmented Standpoint on Aging Men
"[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