Gender, Culture and Society

Ghaill, Máirtín Mac an; Haywood, Chris

doi:10.1007/978-0-230-21627-3

Cited by 75 publications

(21 citation statements)

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“…He evidently feels out of place and this is attributed to both being a man, but also being an older man in a carespace where traditional configurations of gender (Barker 2011) and also age and family, are pervasive. Even though ideas about fatherhood and masculinities are changing, old men are evidently regarded as being outside of familial relations and carescapes (Barker 2008;Mac an Ghaill 2007). Not only are these carespaces gendered and aged, but Gerald's embodiments of ageing masculinities also determine his sense of inclusion or exclusion by the other parents in this particular space.…”

Section: My Wife More As the Provider Of Food And Home Comforts Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Grandfathering as spatio-temporal practice: conceptualizing performances of ageing masculinities in contemporary familial carescapes

Tarrant

2013

Social & Cultural Geography

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This paper examines the spatio-temporalities of the intergenerational caring practices that contemporary grandfathers engage in with their grandchildren, in order to critique old men's constructions and performances of ageing masculinities, and the gendering and ageing of contemporary carescapes. Findings are based on 31 qualitative interviews and two participant observations, conducted in the NorthWest of England with men who are grandfathers. The concept of carescapes (Bowlby, Gregory and McKie 1997) is employed to explain that grandfathering is both spatially and temporally organized. Findings suggest that men construct distinctly masculine spaces of care later in life, contingent on both their resistance to spatially embedded ageism and their comparisons of grandfathering to previous lifecourse subjectivities, such as fathering. Complexity and diversity in how men negotiate these factors is also apparent and is explored. There is evidence for example that some men's performances of ageing masculinities contribute to the maintenance of a gendered division of labour in family care work, while others perform alternative masculinities that offer potential to transform gendered carespaces. This is further mediated by intergenerational interactions with children and grandchildren. Focus on old men who are grandfathers necessarily complicates geographical perspectives on the spatio-temporalities of multiple masculinities, ageing and informal familial care.Key words: Grandfathering; family; carescapes; masculinities; age; identity IntroductionAs a result of existing material, institutional and discursive framings, alongside a privileging of focus on gender over other dimensions of identity, care has come to be understood as Grandfather identities; neglected intersections of masculinities and 'old age'A small yet noteworthy body of sociological work is now attending to the apparent neglect of old men and ageing masculinities and it is this theoretical base that geographers could usefully exploit for developing and re-thinking the geographies of care as gendered, intergenerational and spatio-temporally organized, and masculinities as multiply produced, . These assumptions are problematic however as they are premised on essential understandings of both old age and hegemonic masculinity. Nonetheless this is theoretically interesting because the paradoxical and contradictory nature of these normative values suggests that ageing presents significant challenges to men as they get older and as they face the potential for gendered disempowerment resulting from the material processes of ageing. Geographies of ageing masculinitiesTo some extent the theoretical assumption that old age acts to de-gender old men has been replicated by social geographers, who rarely focus explicitly on old men and ageing masculinities. However limited research does suggest that old men's locations in age and gendered relations are of interest to geographers (Tarrant 2010). At one extreme, old men have been found to avoid public life altogether an...

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Section: My Wife More As the Provider Of Food And Home Comforts Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Grandfathering as spatio-temporal practice: conceptualizing performances of ageing masculinities in contemporary familial carescapes

Tarrant

2013

Social & Cultural Geography

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“…Instead, respondents displayed ambivalence; at once celebrating parts of Bangladeshi heritage while actively distancing themselves from other elements. 5 Also, importantly, across the board our respondents held a positive identification with Islam, though there was great variety in the way this was expressed. 6 Life-cycle and migration patterns also create continuities across individuals and generations, though these tend to be downplayed in people"s narratives in favour of the disjunctures that cause tension within families and the community at large.…”

Section: Bangladeshi Male Identities: Opportunities and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Labour market experiences of young UK Bangladeshi men: Identity, inclusion and exclusion in inner-city London

Salway¹

2008

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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Detailed qualitative data are used to explore the processes perpetuating labour market disadvantage among young UK-Bangladeshi men living in central London. Strong forces of inclusion within the Bangladeshi community are found to interact with forces of exclusion from "mainstream" society to constrain aspirations and limit opportunities.Though diverse forms of young Bangladeshi masculinity are found, a common pattern is heavy dependency on intra-ethnic networks. Negative experiences of, and isolation from, "mainstream" society further reinforce reliance on "our own people". However, acute ambivalence towards belonging to a dense Bangladeshi community exists, exemplified in the widespread denigration of the restaurant trade. Many respondents express the desire to "break out" and access new experiences. The findings support current policy emphasis on "connecting people to work" but highlight the more fundamental need to connect people across ethnic boundaries. The paper urges researchers to "unpack" ethnicity -to carefully consider what ethnic identity implies in terms of access to resources and opportunities for different individuals in different contexts -in order to better understand the diversity of labour market outcomes and the persistence of disadvantage.Bangladeshi, inclusion, labour market, men, identity 3

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“…Central to our study are the theoretical and empirical advances based on the legacy of R. W. Connell’s work on masculinity (Connell and Connell 2005; Emslie et al 2006; Guttman 2006; Kimmel, Hearn, and Connell 2005). Specifically, Connell’s and other scholars’ theorizing of masculinity (hegemonic, complicit, resistant, and marginal) is relevant to understanding suicidality in older men given their often conflictive relationship to health, illness, and health systems (Connell 1993; Connell and Messerschmidt 2005; Courtenay 2009; Mac an Ghaill and Haywood 2007). While hegemonic masculinity refers to the “most honored way of being a man” (a normative ideal rarely lived up to that legitimizes men’s dominance over women), complicit masculinity is meant to characterize men who benefit from the privileges afforded to them by patriarchal structural arrangements but who do not enact “a strong version of masculine dominance” (Connell and Messerschmidt 2005:832).…”

Section: Masculinities Men’s Health and Suicidementioning

confidence: 99%

“If You Were Like Me, You Would Consider It Too”: Suicide, Older Men, and Masculinity

Apesoa-Varano

Barker

Hinton

2017

Society and Mental Health

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Rates of suicide are far higher for older men than for any other age or gender group. However, we know relatively little about how depressed older men think about suicide. This study addresses this gap by exploring how Latino and white non-Hispanic elderly men discuss why they would or would not contemplate suicide. Men, aged 60 and older, were screened and assessed using standard instruments for clinical depression. Those meeting criteria were invited to participate in a 1.5 to 2.5-hour in-depth interview, in either English or Spanish. Interview data come from 77 men and included men with treated and untreated depression. Men linked depression to losing their economic role, sense of productivity, and familial respect. Their narratives of suicide highlighted central tenets of hegemonic masculinity. Men from both ethnic groups asserted that “being a man” involved strength and independent choice. For some men, suicide exemplifies these ideals; for most men suicide violates them. The majority of men who felt that suicide further violated their already fragile manhood either reclaimed a decisive masculine self or embraced a caring self, especially in relation to children and family. The latter pattern raises a theoretical question regarding the symbolic boundaries of hegemonic masculinity.

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Gender, Culture and Society

Cited by 75 publications

References 0 publications

Grandfathering as spatio-temporal practice: conceptualizing performances of ageing masculinities in contemporary familial carescapes

Grandfathering as spatio-temporal practice: conceptualizing performances of ageing masculinities in contemporary familial carescapes

Labour market experiences of young UK Bangladeshi men: Identity, inclusion and exclusion in inner-city London

“If You Were Like Me, You Would Consider It Too”: Suicide, Older Men, and Masculinity

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