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- Sandberg, Linn, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Bouncing off Ove : Old men's readings of the novel A Man Called Ove as a cultural representation of ageing masculinity
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Aging Studies. - : Elsevier. - 0890-4065 .- 1879-193X. ; 63
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years, there has been a rise in portrayals of greying protagonists in popular fiction, often featuring older people in humorous and heart-warming stories. An emerging genre within this literature is the “geezer and grump lit”, a genre where older people are active protagonists, and while often portrayed as grumpy “’usually turn out to have a heart of gold’” (Swinnen, 2019). A notable example of a book in this genre is the internationally bestselling novel A Man Called Ove (2012) by the Swedish author Fredrik Backman. Telling the story of the 59-year-old Ove who sets out to take his own life, the novel can be understood not only as a cultural representation of ageing, but more specifically a cultural representation of ageing masculinity. But how is this popular novel read and responded to by old men themselves? This article builds on a focus group study with Swedish men aged 65–92 who read and discussed A Man Called Ove. The aim of this article is thus to explore how men read the novel and how these readings function as ways of constructing, negotiating and challenging ageing masculinity and the old man as a gendered and aged position. Findings of the study show how discussion of the novel generated a variety of “imaginary positions” through which the participants made sense of what it means to be an old man in contemporary Sweden, including positions such as the active aspiring ageing man, the passive lonely old man, the embodied and vulnerable old man, and the dutiful old man. Future research should explore how other literary genres may provide ways of understanding how old men's gendered and aged subjectivities are constructed.
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| 2. |
- Sandberg, Linn, 1983-
(författare)
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Getting Intimate : A Feminist Analysis of Old Age, Masculinity and Sexuality
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the intersections of masculinity, old age and sexuality from the perspectives of old men themselves, how they understand and experience sex and sexuality in later life. The study uses qualitative in-depth interviews and body diaries, an exploratory method that asked men write about their bodies in everyday life. Twenty-two men, born between 1922 and 1942, participated in the study. The aim of the thesis is two-fold: firstly, to study sexual subjectivities of old men, how old men articulate and make meaning around sexuality in later life. Secondly, the study aims to explore theoretically what a male body may become in relation to ageing; in what ways the ageing male body could be a site for rethinking masculinity and the male body. This aim was inspired by feminist theories in dialogue with the deleuzian concept becoming. Similarly to gender, age is understood to take shape and become intelligible in social and cultural contexts. Furthermore, the thesis stresses the significance of the specificities of the ageing body to the shaping of masculinity, sexuality and subjectivity. The body is therefore discussed as an “open materiality”, beyond the binaries of culture and nature/materiality.This thesis discusses the concepts intimacy and touch as central to how old men’s sexual subjectivities take shape, allowing for alternative conceptualisations of sexuality beyond erection and intercourse. Intimacy and touch are understood and discussed in several different ways. By orienting themselves to touch and intimacy the old men emerged as more mature, unselfish and with more serene sexual desires. This also involved them distancing themselves from the younger man/other men, whom they perceived as more selfish, inconsiderate and with stronger sexual desires. Intimacy and touch could in this respect be understood as resources for shaping desirable heterosexual masculinity. An orientation to intimacy and touch enabled old men to appear as neither asexual nor as “dirty” old men. But the study also suggests that a turn to intimacy and touch may open up possibilities for rethinking and reconfiguring sexuality, masculinity and the male body. The ageing body then need not be understood as an obstacle but as an enabling site that provides opportunities for intimacy and touch. Moreover, the thesis presents affirmative old age as an alternative conceptualisation of old age, beyond both the discourses of successful ageing and the discourses of old age as negativity and decline. As a theory of difference and bodily specificity, affirmative old age may be of interest for further feminist theorising.
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| 3. |
- Lövgren, Karin, et al.
(författare)
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Advertising old(er) men : Swedish old(er) men reflect on "seeing themselves”
- 2022. - 1
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Ingår i: Ageing and the Media. - Bristol : Policy Press. - 9781447362036 - 9781447362050 - 9781447362067 ; , s. 157-173
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Adverts tell a story and comprise images that old men encounter in their everyday 5 lives, and which provide popular scripts on ageing masculinity. This chapter focuses 6 on old men’s own understandings of advertising and their depictions of old men. 7 Focus group interviews with Swedish old men, aged between 65 and 92, were 8 conducted, with commercial adverts featuring old men used as visual prompts to 9 invite discussions on masculinity and ageing. The advertising shown reflects both 10 negative and overtly ageist images, and images of the so-called successfully ageing 11 old man; adverts appealing to identification and aspiration, adverts inciting laughter 12 and appreciation, and adverts creating a sense of resistance or rejection. Different 13 readings of the shown adverts emerged, which point to the polysemic nature of media 14 texts. The chapter discusses prominent themes from the transcribed and coded focus 15 group interviews, on embodied ageing, ageing in different stages of life, masculinity 16 and societal changes in terms of gender equality and the role and status of old men.
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