Abstract
At the heart of this chapter are two aspects of human identity that are rarely joined together: homosexuality and ageing. In the earlier discussion of the gay scene, and from time to time in other chapters, I have shown that a powerful public narrative exists that portrays homosexuality in terms of youthfulness and young bodies. And for this reason, being gay is rarely associated with growing old or being old. Jeffrey Weeks was one of the first scholars to discuss the story of age segregation and ageing in the gay milieu. Writing in the early 1980s, he related how old gay men were invisible because the focus of the gay milieu was on youthfulness.1s
‘There used to be the notion that old gay men were sad and lonely but I think that has evaporated and now they are seen as no more or less sad than anyone else is.’ Chester, 71.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
While Weeks was one of the first scholars to investigate it, the work of the North American scholar, Raymond Berger, is regarded as definitive. See J. Weeks ‘The problems of older Homosexuals’ in J. Hart and D. Richardson (eds) The Theory and Practice of Homosexuality (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981), pp. 177–84;
R. M. Berger Gay and gray: the older homosexual man, 2nd edn (Binghamton, New York: The Haworth Press, 1996); R. M. Berger ‘Realities of gay and lesbian aging’, Social Work, (1984) 57–62.
See Berger Gay and gray, p. 232; A. M. Boxer and B. J. Cohler ‘The life course of gay and lesbian youth: an immodest proposal for the study of lives’ in G. Herdt (ed.) Gay and Lesbian Youth (New York: The Haworth Press, 1989), pp. 315–55; Weeks ‘The problems of older homosexuals’, p. 181.
See, for example, P. Ariès Centuries of Childhood (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973);
S. de Beauvoir Old Age, trans. P. O’Brien (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977);
N. Elias The Loneliness of the Dying, trans. E. Jephcott (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987);
D. H. Fischer ‘Growing old in America’ in J. S. Quandagno (ed.) Aging, the Individual and Society: readings in social gerontology (New York: St Martin’s Press, Inc., 1980), pp. 34–49;
P. Laslett Family life and illicit love in earlier generations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), ch. 5;
M. Mitternauer A History of Youth, trans. Graeme Dunphy, (Oxford: Blackwells Publishers, 1992);
C. Shilling The Body and Social Theory, 2nd edn (London: Sage Publications Ltd., 2005), pp. 196–6;
B. S. Turner The Body and Society: explorations in social theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd., 1984).
See, for example, C. Phillipson Capitalism and the construction of old age (London: Macmillan, 1982)
E. Willis Illness and social relations: issues in the sociology of health care (Sydney: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd, 1994).
For example, see discussion of Australian Aborigines’ mortality rates in I. Anderson Koorie health in Koorie hands: an orientation manual in Aboriginal health for health care providers (Melbourne: Koorie health unit, Department of Health, Victoria, 1988).
For example, see: Berger Gay and gray, ch. 10 & passim; R. Dorfman et al. ‘Old, sad and alone: the myth of the aging homosexual’ in Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 24, 1/2 (1995) 29–44;
J. Kelly ‘The aging male homosexual: myth and reality’ in The Gerontolgist, 17, 4 (1977) 328–32.
Shilling The Body, pp. 193 & 195. Shilling draws on the works of Franz Fanon and Mike Featherstone and Mike Hepworth when developing his notion of the body as a mask: F. Fanon Black Skin, White Masks (London: Pluto Press, 1984);
M. Featherstone and M. Hepworth ‘The mask of ageing and the postmodern life course’ in M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth and B. S. Turner (eds) The Body: social process and cultural theory (London: Sage Publication, 1991), pp. 371–89.
See M. Poliak ‘Male homosexuality — or happiness in the ghetto’ in P. Ariès and A. Béjin (eds) Western Sexuality: practice and precept in past and present times, trans. A. Forster, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), pp. 40–61.
See T. Mann Death in Venice, Tristan, Tonio Kroger, trans. H.T. Lowe-Porter (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1975), p. 77.
Copyright information
© 2008 Peter Robinson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Robinson, P. (2008). Life as an Old Gay Man. In: The Changing World of Gay Men. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584310_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230584310_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-36497-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-58431-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)