Differentiating selves
Middle-aged gay men in Manchester's less visible 'homospaces
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5609832 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Simpson (0000-0002-4234-6523, Department of Sociology Manchester University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 150-169 |
| Publication date | 2014-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-4446.12056 |
| PMID | 24697718 |
| OpenAlex | W2143459072 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 24 |
Scholarship on gay bars/'villages' has overshadowed study of 'homospaces' (gay fields of existence) less available/inaccessible to a wider public - websites, saunas and social/support groups. Based on interviews with 27 men aged 39-61 living in Manchester, this article addresses what middle-aged gay men's accounts of these particular homospaces say about their experiences of age/ageing and how relations of ageism work within them. Specifically, I focus on how study participants use 'ageing capital' in these fields to differentiate themselves from their younger counterparts in three ways. First, ageing capital is implicated in capitulation to gay ageism and a reverse ageism - visible in accounts of differentiation from the 'superficial,' reckless ways of sexualized space that participants associated with younger gay men. Second, it was visible in accounts of resistance to/questioning of gay ageism - strategies that could make sexualized homospaces more habitable. Third, ageing capital was implicated in negotiation with ageing/gay ageism - visible in ambivalent stances hovering between compliance and resistance - towards ageing and ageism, which could reinforce constraints on uses/display of the body. The first and third accounts indicate the multidirectional character of gay ageism, limits on the deployment on ageing capital and show how middle-aged men can undermine their generational claims to represent a more authentic form of gay male embodiment. En route, I also complicate stereotypical thinking that gay social/support groups represent more inclusive, empowering space whilst overtly sexualized spaces of the 'gay scene' represent the opposite
Ambivalence · Negotiation · Political science · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology · Gerontology
Gay and Gray
Romantic longings
The Changing World of Gay Men
Working-Class Lesbian Life
Internalized homophobia and health issues affecting lesbians and gay men
Distinction
Sexual Citizenship
Same Sex Intimacies
Choice and Its Limits in Older Lesbian and Gay Narratives of Relational Life
Alienation, ambivalence, agency
Gay identities and the culture of class
Lesbian and Gay Politics and Participation in New Labour's Britain
Older women's relations to bodily appearance
An Invitation of Reflexive Sociology
Accelerated Aging and Male Homosexuality
Cosmopolitan Knowledge and the Production and Consumption of Sexualized Space
On Not Getting it
Power, Inequality and Identification
Running to Run
Sexualities, Gender and Ageing
Whose Gay Community? Social Class, Sexual Self-Expression, and Gay Community Involvement
Bathhouse Intercourse
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |