Age, sexuality and hegemonic masculinity: Exploring older gay men’s masculinity practices at work

Abstract

This article examines how older gay men practice masculinity in heteronormative organizational settings. Our analysis of in-depth interview data yields two key masculinity practices: maintaining heteronormativity and embodying change. Older gay men's masculinity practices that conform to the ideals of hegemonic masculinity have the effect of maintaining heteronormativity. Embodying change refers to older gay men's masculinity practices that leverage accumulated life experiences to negotiate heteronormativity for change, although such agency is constrained by individuals' material and symbolic commitments to heteronormativity. By delineating these two clusters of practices and exploring the dynamic relationality between individual action and organizational order from a practice-based perspective, we extend the conceptual scope of hegemonic masculinity. Furthermore, by investigating how older gay men navigate ageing and sexuality in organizations, we show the constraining and enabling effects of ageing as a social and embodied process on gay men's masculinity practices.

You, Me, and Them: Understanding Employees’ Use of Trans-Affirming Language within the Workplace

“…Interestingly, cis-gender non-heterosexual men were less comfortable using trans-affirming language than individuals from most other groups. This finding is consistent with earlier studies documenting differences in support for hegemonic masculinity across sexual-and gender-minority groups (see, e.g., Ozturk et al, 2020), and underscores the importance of considering "diversity within diversity" when examining individuals' support for gender (non-)traditional practices.…”

“…However, there may also be disparities in the degree of comfort using trans-affirming language across members of different sexual-minority groups. For example, evidence shows that some gay men are highly supportive of cis-normative standards, penalizing gay men who behave or dress in gender non-conforming ways (see, e.g., Ozturk et al, 2020). For this reason, we compare the degree of comfort using trans-affirming language across finely defined sexual-and gender-minority groups.…”

A gay reflection on microaggressions, symbolic normativities, and pink hair

“…I claim that a crucial reason and a source for microaggressions at work is grounded in gendered norms (following hetero‐ and cis‐normative assumptions) according to which people in general do gender at work, treat people differently, advance in their career, or face discrimination, just to name a few consequences (Kelan, 2010; Ozturk et al., 2020; Ozturk & Tatli, 2018; Rumens, 2018). In a way, microaggressions seem to be a symbolic means of voicing gendered expectations and conforming to their ongoing iterative reproduction.…”

“…This social system produced by formal and informal behaviors and interactions evaluates, assumes, and disciplines every expression of sexuality and gender according to heteronormative standards and expectations, including people who identify as straight (Pringle, 2008; Priola et al., 2018). Heteronormative work culture may lead into additional labor (Cottingham et al., 2016) as its assumptions need to be managed in the everyday, by both gay (Ozturk et al., 2020) and non‐gay employees.…”

Young People’s Voices and Science for Overcoming Toxic Relationships Represented in Sex Education

“…Domination and discrimination are two components that indicate the poor quality of a relationship, which is called a toxic relationship [ 30 ] and produced in heterosexual and/or homosexual relationships [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. These elements of power and dominance appear in Dominant Traditional Masculinity (DTM) [ 34 , 35 ], masculinity that can be socialised to suppress emotions in order to maintain dominance of women [ 36 ].…”