The Resources of Ageing? Middle-Aged Gay Men's Accounts of Manchester's Gay Voluntary Organizations

Abstract

Middle-aged men's experiences of gay voluntary organizations (GVOs) are neglected in research. To address this knowledge gap, this article extends Bourdieusian theorizing beyond that deployed by Hakim (2010) and Green (2008) concerning 'erotic capital' to demonstrate how norms in GVOs can facilitate or frustrate mobilization of 'ageing capital' by middle-aged gay men living in Manchester (UK), which has implications for comparable cities within and beyond a UK context. Based on interviews with 22 men aged 39-55, this article demonstrates how 'ageing capital' can facilitate challenge to gay ageism but also how such ageism can frustrate and even overwhelm men's capacities to deploy ageing capital in generic GVOs, thus reinforcing intergenerational conflict and expression of ageism towards younger gay men. In doing so, this article contributes to knowledge about the reproduction of the relations of ageism in a particular field of gay existence.Gay culture is by no means youth-dominated. Middle-aged gay men (late thirties to pre-statutory retirement age) are a significant presence on the commercial 'gay scene' of bars and saunas in Manchester (Simpson, 2015), which is Britain's third largest city. They feature significantly in the city's gay voluntary organizations (GVOs) and are often involved professionally and/or voluntarily in their management. Study of these organizations, however, has been eclipsed by focus on 'families of choice ' (Weeks et al., 2001) and antagonisms of class, gender and sexuality, though not of age, in Manchester's 'gay village' (see Binnie and Skeggs, 2004). With the missing age dimension in mind, this article explores middle-aged gay men's accounts of GVOs -a relatively neglected field of gay existence. Study of GVOs is important because older gay men tend to recount them as spaces of value and inclusion. It also illuminates limits to the hegemony of youth in gay culture and the multiform relations of gay ageism.

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