MASCAGE

Topic: Sex, Gender and Aging

The primary objective of this research is to analyse social constructions of ageing masculinities and/through their cultural representations in contemporary European literatures and cinemas. The study specifically seeks: (a) to understand more fully the interrelationship of masculinities with a variety of social issues specifically associated with men’s ageing: older men’s health; social inclusion and exclusion; sexualities and affective relationships; and ageist stereotypes; (b) to explore men’s experiences of, and attitudes to, ageing across different European cultures, exploring their commonalities and differences, at both national and transnational levels; (c) to gain a deeper understanding of ageing masculinities in and through cultural representations; and (d) to share the results of this project with other researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to help them devise strategies and policies designed to promote greater gender and age equity. If age studies focus on youth and gerontology studies of either older women or "ungendered" portraits of ageing (Saxton and Cole 2012), this project will explore the gendered specificities of men’s ageing. Applying to the cultural analysis an interdisciplinary corpus of masculinity and age studies, the project seeks to make an impact by crossing the traditional Social Sciences-Humanities boundary and by proving that not only do social notions of masculinity shape their cultural representations, but they simultaneously affect the social (de-)construction of both gender and age.

Coordinator

José María Armengol

Countries

Austria, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Spain, Sweden

Institutions involved

Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha; University of Graz; Sodertorn University; Tallinn University; University of Galway; Bar-Ilan University

Contact

josemaria.armengol@uclm.es

Website

www.mascage.eu

• Midterm Monitoring Workshop Presentation
• O’Neill, Margaret, and Michaela Schrage-Früh. “The Aging Contemporary: Aging Families and Generational Connections in Irish Writing.” The New Irish Studies, edited by Paige Reynolds, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020, pp. 177–192. Twenty-First-Century Critical Revisions.

• Aging Masculinities in Contemporary U.S. Fiction. Edited by Josep M. Armengol, Cham, Springer International Publishing, 2021.

• Gramshammer-Hohl, Dagmar, and HergenrötherOana. Foreign Countries of Old Age : East and Southeast European Perspectives on Aging. Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2021.

• Roy, Senjooti, and Liat Ayalon. “Age and Gender Stereotypes Reflected in Google’s “Autocomplete” Function: The Portrayal and Possible Spread of Societal Stereotypes.” The Gerontologist, 2019.

Check out the project's website for more academic publications :  http://www.mascage.eu/