Intersections of ageing, gender and sexualities gender of ageing, Intersections AGEING IN A “A fresh, stimulating and contemporary approach to conceptualising and responding to theories, research, policies and practices on ageing, gender GLOBAL CONTEXT and sexualities. This unrivalled global collection provides essential intersectional and multidisciplinary perspectives that challenge us all.” Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Middlesex University London With an increasingly diverse ageing population, we need to expand our understanding of how social divisions intersect to affect outcomes in later life. This edited collection examines ageing, gender and sexualities from multidisciplinary and geographically diverse perspectives and looks at how these factors combine with other social divisions to affect experiences of ageing. It draws on theory and empirical data to provide both conceptual knowledge and INTERSECTIONSAGE-FRIENDLY CITIES OF AGEING, AND clear ‘real-world’ illustrations, and includes section introductions to guide the reader through the debates and ideas. GENDERCOMMUNITIES AND SEXUALITIES Andrew King is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey, UK, where he is also Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender. MultidisciplinaryA global perspective international perspectives Kathryn Almack is Professor of Health and Family Lives at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Her research has included a focus on LGBT older people, ageing and end-of-life care. EDITED BY ANDREW KING, KATHRYN ALMACK Rebecca L. Jones is Senior Lecturer in Health at The Open University, UK. She researches AND REBECCA L. JONES ageing and sexuality across the life course and especially sexuality in later life. Edited by King, Almack, Jones by Edited ISBN 978-1-4473-3302-9 www.policypress.co.uk 9 781447 333029 PolicyPress @policypress INTERSECTIONS OF AGEING, GENDER AND SEXUALITIES Multidisciplinary international perspectives Edited by Andrew King, Kathryn Almack and Rebecca L. Jones First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Policy Press North America office: University of Bristol Policy Press 1-9 Old Park Hill c/o The University of Chicago Press Bristol 1427 East 60th Street BS2 8BB Chicago, IL 60637, USA UK t: +1 773 702 7700 t: +44 (0)117 954 5940 f: +1 773-702-9756 [email protected] [email protected] www.policypress.co.uk www.press.uchicago.edu © Policy Press 2019 The digital PDF version of this title [978-1-4473-5471-0] is available Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits adaptation, alteration, reproduction and distribution for non-commercial use, without further permission provided the original work is attributed. The derivative works do not need to be licensed on the same terms. An electronic version of this book [978-1-4473-5471-0] is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. Knowledge Unlatched British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested 978-1-4473-3302-9 hardback 978-1-4473-3303-6 ePdf 978-1-4473-3529-0 ePub 978-1-4473-3530-6 Mobi The rights of Andrew King, Kathryn Almack and Rebecca L. Jones to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Policy Press. The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the editors and contributors and not of the University of Bristol or Policy Press. The University of Bristol and Policy Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication. Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality. Cover design by Policy Press Front cover image: istock Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Policy Press uses environmentally responsible print partners Contents Acknowledgements v Notes on contributors vii Foreword by Sara Arber xiii Series editors’ preface xv one Introduction: intersections of ageing, gender 1 and sexualities Andrew King, Kathryn Almack and Rebecca L. Jones Part 1: Theoretical interpolations Introduction 11 two On the intersections of age, gender and sexualities 13 in research on ageing Toni Calasanti three The queer subject of ‘getting on’ 31 Yvette Taylor four Transgender ageing: community resistance and 47 well-being in the life course Vanessa Fabbre and Anna Siverskog Part 2: Representations Introduction 65 five Endogenous misery: menopause in medicine, 67 literature and culture Elizabeth Barry six Representations of female ageing and sexuality in 83 Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger, Angela Carter’s Wise Children and Doris Lessing’s ‘The grandmothers’ Maricel Oró Piqueras seven ‘Last-minute mothers’: the construction of age and 99 midlife motherhood in Denmark and Israel Kinneret Lahad and Karen Hvidtfeldt iii Intersections of ageing, gender and sexualities Part 3: Dis/empowerments Introduction 117 eight All change please: education, mobility and habitus 119 dislocation Jill Wilkens nine Insider or outsider? Issues of power and habitus 137 during life history interviews with menopausal Iranian women Elham Amini ten Sexual expression and sexual practices in long-term 153 residential facilities for older people Feliciano Villar eleven Sexual and gender diversity, ageing and elder care 171 in South Africa: voices and realities Finn Reygan and Jamil Khan Part 4: Health and well-being Introduction 189 twelve Health and well-being of lesbians, gay men and 191 bisexual people in later life: examining the commonalities and differences from quantitative research Mark Hughes thirteen Questioning the sexy oldie: masculinity, age and 209 sexuality in the Viagra era Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto fourteen Intersecting identities of age, gender and 223 sexual orientation in gay and bisexual men’s narratives of prostate cancer Julie Fish Index 241 iv Acknowledgements As editors of this book we would like to acknowledge and thank a number of people. First, we would like to thank all those individuals who attended and/or presented at the conference Intersections of Ageing, Gender and Sexualities (IAGES), which was held at the University of Surrey, UK, 6–7 July 2015. This conference, which was supported by funding from the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Surrey, formed the basis of this book and many of its chapters were initially presented there. Many thanks must go to all the authors who have contributed to this collection and been understanding and responsive throughout the process. Much thanks also goes to Laura Vickers-Rendall at Policy Press, who has always been helpful, encouraging and patient during the process of the writing, editing and producing this book. Finally, we would also like to acknowledge the important contribution of Sue Westwood, who was central to the organisation of the IAGES conference and the initial stages of this book. v Notes on contributors Kathryn Almack is Professor of Health and Family Lives in the School of Health and Social Work, University of Hertfordshire, UK. She is a sociologist whose research addresses family lives, health and well-being across the life course. In the past decade her work has had a substantial focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) older people, ageing and end of life care. She has completed a number of funded projects and published widely in this area. Findings from her research have been used to develop new resources for practitioners and policy makers. She is co-editor of Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans People: Minding the Knowledge Gaps (with Andrew King, Yiu- Tung Suen and Sue Westwood, 2018) and on the editorial board for the British Sociological Association journal Sociology. She is currently researching lesbian parenthood as part of a longitudinal qualitative research project. Elham Amini completed her PhD in sociology of health and gender at Durham University, UK, in 2017. She has a BSc degree (midwifery) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and two Master’s degrees: one in women’s studies from Alzahra University, Iran, and the other in sociology and social research methods from Durham University. Her work focuses on the gendered and sexual experiences of Iranian Muslim menopausal women through a life history biographical narrative approach and by highlighting menopause, ageing, notions of the body, and medicalisation in relation to sexuality and gender, articulates women’s understanding of and from their menopausal bodies. Elizabeth Barry is Associate Professor in English at the University of Warwick, UK. She is the author of Beckett and Authority (2006), and has edited issues of International Journal of Cultural Studies (2008), Journal of Beckett Studies (2008), and Journal of Medical Humanities (2016). Her interests lie in and between modernist narrative, performance, medicine and ageing. She has held two Arts and Humanities Research Council grants to work with doctors and healthcare providers, using literature and performance to investigate ageing, illness and mental health. vii Intersections of ageing, gender and sexualities Toni Calasanti is Professor of Sociology at Virginia Tech, USA, where she is also a faculty affiliate of both the Center for Gerontology and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her research on the intersections of age, gender and social inequalities has appeared in several journals in aging and sociology as well as in the books Gender, Social Inequalities, and Aging (co-edited with Kathleen F.