PhD, Docent (Associate professor) in Gender Studies. Senior lecturer in Gender Studies, Södertörn University. PI of two projects " LGBTQ and dementia in Policy and Practice in Swedish dementia care" (with Anna Siverskog) and Imagining Queer Aging Futures: A study of LGBTQ aging in Estonia, Poland and Sweden (with Joanna Mizelinska, Agata Stasinska). Research interests include feminist theories and methodologies, old age and ageing embodiment, sexualities and queer theory, disability studies, critical approaches to dementia.
Affiliated faculty fellow at the Trent Centre for Aging and Society, Trent University. Cofounder and convenor of Critical dementia studies network https://memoryfriendly.org.uk/programmes/critical-dementia-network/ Address: School of Culture and Education Södertörn University 141 89 Huddinge Sweden
This chapter engages in critical dialogues between dementia studies and feminist scholarship. Mor... more This chapter engages in critical dialogues between dementia studies and feminist scholarship. More specifically, the chapter explores how feminist studies can be useful for thinking and rethinking dementia and difference. The chapter engages with two feminist genealogies: feminist difference theory and feminist standpoint theory. Dementia has frequently been conceptualised in terms of negative difference as loss and deterioration, in particular in bio-medical discourse. More recent discourses have in contrast sought to underscore the sameness and normality of people with dementia, but this approach also functions to reinstate people with dementia into cognonormative Western modernist ideals of activity, agency and autonomy. Feminist difference theorists, however, provide ways of thinking affirmative difference. This approach to difference is neither a recourse to pathological difference nor to assimilationist sameness, but enables ways of thinking dementia as lived and embodied difference. The second approach to difference, feminist standpoint theory, concerns the different positionalities of people with dementia. In this argument, people with dementia, in particular those experiencing multiple forms of oppression, are understood as holding epistemic privilege – a particular knowledge of the oppressions of cognitive ableism. The chapter proposes a ‘“demented” standpoint’ as a way of approaching the different and unique knowledge of people with dementia and discusses further how this requires radical rethinking of methodologies in dementia studies.
In recent years, there has been a rise in portrayals of greying protagonists in popular fiction, ... more In recent years, there has been a rise in portrayals of greying protagonists in popular fiction, often featuring older people in humorous and heartwarming 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.
Nora Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender research
This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfem... more This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfeminine ageing futures, through an analysis of the auto-fictional novel Q by Swedish author Fredrik Ekelund. The novel tells the story of Fredrik, who comes out as transvestite at the age of 60, and subsequently struggles to come to terms with and explore their transfeminine identity as Marisol. Overall, cultural representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ageing are rare, and often tell tales of misery. As such, Q is a unique example of a complex and relatively positive narrative of transgender ageing. On the one hand, transgender ageing is portrayed as a potential escape from both time and growing old, a form of “rebirth”. On the other hand, failure emerges as a constant threat, including both the failure to perform age-appropriate femininity and failure in the sense of becoming stuck with self-loathing and shame. The protagonist’s struggles to age successfully become intimately connected with pride and standing up for oneself, struggles that are in turn bound to homonationalist discourses of Scandinavian progressiveness and LGBT exceptionalism.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2021
Subjectivity is a widely explored topic in dementia studies, in both the humanities and the socia... more Subjectivity is a widely explored topic in dementia studies, in both the humanities and the social sciences. Persistent discourses of “a loss of self” in dementia have been challenged by scholars, who argue for the need for continued recognition of the person with dementia and that subjectivity in dementia may be sustained. So far, however, there is a lack of discussion about the significance of gender, and how being recognised as a subject overall is closely intertwined with being recognised as a gendered subject. This article explores how gender matters to the recognition of subjectivity in dementia. But it also explores how dementia as a position of cognitive otherness may impact upon and disrupt gender performativity. The discussion builds on narratives from an interview study on intimacy and sexual relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the narrative of the Swedish autobiographical novel Minns du? [Do you remember?] (Beckman, 2019 )...
This chapter explores touch as an essential aspect of ageing embodiment, which also has a signifi... more This chapter explores touch as an essential aspect of ageing embodiment, which also has a significant impact on experiences of gendered and sexual embodiment in later life. Drawing on an empirical study with older Swedish men who were both interviewed and asked to write ‘body diaries’ about their everyday embodiment, the research argues that their narratives of touch constitute alternative representations of both male sexuality and ageing embodiment as phallic discourses inevitably signifying decline and decay. In recent years, the increasing emphases of sexuality as vital to the accomplishment of successful ageing often overlook the more complex nuances of older people’s experiences of sexuality and intimacy, which may involve loss, pain and illness as well as unbounded joys. In contrast, this chapter concludes that a turn to touch directs us to the simultaneous vulnerability and potential for pleasure and excitation in ageing embodiment.
Intimate partner violence is often known to a wider social network. Still little research exists ... more Intimate partner violence is often known to a wider social network. Still little research exists on the experiences of social networks, how they respond and how women and children experiencing intimate partner violence perceive these responses. This article draws on 16 qualitative interviews with women victims of intimate partner violence, intimate partner violence-exposed children and their relatives in three kin networks. The overall aim of this article is to study responses to intimate partner violence from a multivocal perspective where the possibly concurring and conflicting perspectives of both the victims and the networks are heard. More specifically, the article explores what responses are perceived as possible/impossible to end violence and create safety for women and children. The article shows how masculinity, in intersection with kin position and age, figures both as an obstacle and a possibility to end intimate partner violence. Moreover, the article shows that response...
People with cognitive disabilities are commonly positioned as risky sexual subjects. This article... more People with cognitive disabilities are commonly positioned as risky sexual subjects. This article discusses the discursive produc- tion of sexual normates in the form of desirable and normative able-minded sexual subjects, in scientific research on the sexuality and cognitive disabilities of younger and older individuals (in par- ticular those with dementia). We identify three interrelated dis- courses: regulating sexuality; fostering sexuality; and preserving sexuality. The first of these, regulation, pathologises sexuality of people with cognitive disabilities as faulty and in need of restric- tion. The second discourse, fostering, is more affirmative and argues for educating for a ‘healthy’ sexuality of people with cog- nitive disabilities, to mitigate risks of abuse. This discourse is more salient with younger people. The third discourse, preserva- tion, in contrast, is more visible with older people with dementia and affirms sexuality so long as it is consistent with a ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’ sexuality of the past. In conclusion, scientific research reinforces the cultural ideal of the rational and autonomous indi- vidual (and as such the mature/adult) capable of making inde- pendent decisions and engaging in healthy, good sex, based on stable sexual identities. Findings demonstrate how age intersects with cognitive ableism to intensify the cultural anxiety that exists around the sexualities of people with cognitive disabilities.
Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging, 2019
Older people are often assumed to be both asexual and de-gendered, meaning that sexuality is ofte... more Older people are often assumed to be both asexual and de-gendered, meaning that sexuality is often overlooked in the older population (Barrett and Hinchcliff 2017). Moreover, even when sexuality is acknowledged within gerontology, heterosexu- ality is often assumed (Westwood 2016; King 2016a). Gerontology has thus been hetero- normative: heterosexuality is viewed as the taken-for-granted and desirable norm. It is also cis-normative, making the assumption that a per- son’s current gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth. The term queering gerontology in this entry refers to attempts by critical gerontologists/ageing scholars to interro- gate and challenge these assumptions in main- stream gerontology by drawing on queer theory.
New sexual scripts on later life are emerging, discourses on “sexy oldies” challenge pervasive di... more New sexual scripts on later life are emerging, discourses on “sexy oldies” challenge pervasive discourses on asexual old age. Still, sexuality among people with dementia, who are generally older, is rarely affirmed. Research on sexuality and dementia is, more- over, dominated by biomedical accounts that regard sexual and intimate behaviours as expressions of pathology. However, sexual- ity and intimacy could be significant aspects of later life, also when living with dementia. This qualitative study explores experi- ences of sexuality and intimacy among heterosexual couples where one partner was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Interviews were conducted with seven couples, aged 55–87, and both the person with the dementia diagnosis and their partner participated. The findings point to a diversity of experiences, with differences between the older and younger couples. The older couples experienced changes more as a result of embodied age- ing, and sexuality and intimacy were experienced as sources of pleasure, comfort and recognition. The younger couples under- stood changes more as caused by Alzheimer’s disease and experi- enced a greater loss of intimacy and desire. The study shows how experiences of sexuality and intimacy when living with dementia are shaped by varying sexual scripts and expectations of health in different parts of the life course.
Addressing the sexual rights of older people: Theory, policy and practice, 2017
The sexualities of older men are ambiguous and ridden with contradictions. Some men's sexual attr... more The sexualities of older men are ambiguous and ridden with contradictions. Some men's sexual attractiveness is more readily recognized, also as they become older. This chapter highlights older men's diverse experiences and attitudes toward sexuality in later life and how these can be understood and translated into improved understanding of their sexual rights. Three ways in which men relate to sexuality in later life are elaborated on in the following: aspirations to continued sexual assertion, potency and performance; renouncing sexuality; and redefining and broadening concepts of sex and sexuality. There are also differences between men with respect to whether the renunciations of sexuality are voluntary and experienced as a freedom or if they were felt as involuntary. Both heterosexual and non-heterosexual men report that sexual interest and desire may decline as one ages. For some heterosexual men, experiences of ageing embodiment, including but not limited to a decline in erectile function, meant an increasing focus on wider pleasures
Despite person-centred approaches increasingly focusing on looking at the person in dementia inst... more Despite person-centred approaches increasingly focusing on looking at the person in dementia instead of the pathology, the role of gender in dementia has been little explored. This article discusses how pervasive discourses on a loss of self and dementia as abject are interwoven with a de-gendering of persons with dementia. The cultural anxiety that dementia evokes in terms of loss of bodily and cognitive control could also be linked to a failure to normatively and intelligibly express gender when living with dementia. As a way to sustain personhood for people with dementia and challenge discourses on people with dementia as 'non-people', person-centred approaches have emphasised the collaborative work of carers, relatives and persons with dementia. Often implicitly, this also involves a 're-gendering' of persons with dementia where gendered biographies and pasts are upheld and gendered embodied selfhood is maintained through, for example, dress, hair and other aspects of appearance. This re-gendering could be of great significance for people with dementia to become intelligible as 2 persons. Still, dementia studies must further consider non-normative expressions of gender and involve feminist theorising on gender as a power asymmetry since some embodiments and selves are more likely to be sustained in dementia than others.
This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in ag... more This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in aging experiences by opening space to rethink conceptions of successful aging futures. We propose a 'queering' of aging futures that disrupts the ways that expectations of a good later life and happy aging are seen to adhere to some bodies and subjectivities over others. Drawing on feminist, queer, and crip theories, we build on existing critiques of 'successful aging' to interrogate the assumptions of heteronormativity, able-bodiedness and able-mindedness that shape the dividing lines between success and failure in aging, and which inform attempts to 'repair' damaged futures. Conclusions suggest that recognizing diversity in successful aging futures is important in shaping responses to the challenges of aging societies, and presents an opportunity for critical cultural gerontology to join with its theoretical allies in imagining more inclusive alternatives.
This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and ... more This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and boys in Sweden, and how it has been used and developed. Sweden has a relatively long history of public debate, research, and policy intervention in gender issues and gender equality. This has meant, in sheer quantitative terms, a relatively sizeable corpus of work on men, masculinities, and gender relations. There is also a rather wide diversity of approaches, theoretically and empirically, to the analysis of men and masculinities. The Swedish national context and gender equality project is outlined. This is followed by discussion of three broad phases in studies on men and masculinities in Sweden: the 1960s and 1970s before the formulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the 1980s and 1990s when the concept was important for a generation of researchers developing studies in more depth; and the 2000s with a younger generation committed to a variety of feminist and gender critiques other than those associated with hegemonic masculinity. The following sections focus specifically on how the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used, adapted, and indeed not used, in particular areas of study: boys and young men in family and education; violence; and health. The article concludes with review of how hegemonic masculinity has been used in Swedish contexts, as: gender stereotype, often out of the context of legitimation of patriarchal relations; “Other” than dominant, white middle-class “Swedish,” equated with outmoded, nonmodern, working-class, failing boy, or minority ethnic masculinities; a new masculinity concept and practice, incorporating some degree of gender equality; and reconceptualized and problematized as a modern, heteronormative, and subject-centered concept.
This chapter discusses a discursive shift on sex, sexuality and older people from notions of ‘the... more This chapter discusses a discursive shift on sex, sexuality and older people from notions of ‘the asexual oldie’ to the contemporary ‘sexy senior’. While later life has historically been associated with asexuality older people are today discussed as sexually active and interested. In both cultural and scientific representations sexuality and an active sex life are increasingly understood as lifelong and part of a healthy and positive ageing. However, recent discourses on sexy seniors often reproduce narrow conceptualisations of sex and sexuality, dependent on male erections and confined to penile – vaginal intercourse. Qualitative research point to a more nuanced and complex picture where sexuality involves also non-coital pleasures such as cuddling and touch.
Recent years have seen increasing discussions of sexuality in later life. Today, continued sexual... more Recent years have seen increasing discussions of sexuality in later life. Today, continued sexual activity is gradually understood as a positive and healthy aspect of aging, in contrast to how aging historically was primarily associated with asexuality. Old men’s sexual function, in particular, has been a topic of notable interest to scholars and popular media alike, an interest spurred not least by the market introduction of Viagra and other sexuo-pharmaceuticals. If aging men’s sexual function has been the object of extensive discussion, considerably less attention has been given to the question of sexual desire in later life, neither women’s nor men’s. Old men’s sexual desire is a potentially conflictual field as men are often expected to be sexually willing but the old man who shows continued sexual interest also run the risk of being labeled a “dirty old man.” This article focuses on old men, masculinity, and sexual desire through the interview narratives of Swedish med between sixty-seven and eighty-seven years old. In dialogue with Sara Ahmed’s work on queer phenomenology, the article discusses asserted sexual desire as a form of orientation that shapes old men’s heterosexual subjectivities. The interviewees expressed that sexual desire continued to be an important aspect of later life, but sexual desire was also understood to vanish as one aged. For those who expressed a lack of sexual desire, this was sometimes experienced as a “gender trouble” but was also made sense of in relation to feeling old. All on all, intimacy was a central way of making sense of later life sexuality. The article concludes that narratives on intimacy could be understood as ways of retaining a heterosexual orientation as one ages. Through narratives of intimacy men could express a continued interest in sexuality, but in positive and unthreatening ways that avoided the stigmatization of being a dirty old man.
Grandparents whose grandchildren are exposed to domestic violence are faced with some unique chal... more Grandparents whose grandchildren are exposed to domestic violence are faced with some unique challenges in their grandparenting, which have thus far been little discussed in research. This paper discusses the narratives of 10 Swedish grandparents whose grandchildren have been exposed to violence towards their mother. The aim was to explore grandparents' narrations of their responses in the face of violence, and their understanding of the role they play in their grandchildren's social networks. Two significant responses are discussed: ‘being there’ and ‘acknowledging the independence and self-determination of the adult children’. Grandparents experienced these responses as contradictory and felt powerless when it came to their possibilities to protect their grandchildren. The paper suggests that grandparents could be a resource for domestic violence services, and social work practice needs to assess the roles of grandparents of children exposed to domestic violence. Social workers should consider the challenges these grandparents are facing and what support they may need in order to support their grandchildren.
This chapter engages in critical dialogues between dementia studies and feminist scholarship. Mor... more This chapter engages in critical dialogues between dementia studies and feminist scholarship. More specifically, the chapter explores how feminist studies can be useful for thinking and rethinking dementia and difference. The chapter engages with two feminist genealogies: feminist difference theory and feminist standpoint theory. Dementia has frequently been conceptualised in terms of negative difference as loss and deterioration, in particular in bio-medical discourse. More recent discourses have in contrast sought to underscore the sameness and normality of people with dementia, but this approach also functions to reinstate people with dementia into cognonormative Western modernist ideals of activity, agency and autonomy. Feminist difference theorists, however, provide ways of thinking affirmative difference. This approach to difference is neither a recourse to pathological difference nor to assimilationist sameness, but enables ways of thinking dementia as lived and embodied difference. The second approach to difference, feminist standpoint theory, concerns the different positionalities of people with dementia. In this argument, people with dementia, in particular those experiencing multiple forms of oppression, are understood as holding epistemic privilege – a particular knowledge of the oppressions of cognitive ableism. The chapter proposes a ‘“demented” standpoint’ as a way of approaching the different and unique knowledge of people with dementia and discusses further how this requires radical rethinking of methodologies in dementia studies.
In recent years, there has been a rise in portrayals of greying protagonists in popular fiction, ... more In recent years, there has been a rise in portrayals of greying protagonists in popular fiction, often featuring older people in humorous and heartwarming 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.
Nora Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender research
This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfem... more This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfeminine ageing futures, through an analysis of the auto-fictional novel Q by Swedish author Fredrik Ekelund. The novel tells the story of Fredrik, who comes out as transvestite at the age of 60, and subsequently struggles to come to terms with and explore their transfeminine identity as Marisol. Overall, cultural representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ageing are rare, and often tell tales of misery. As such, Q is a unique example of a complex and relatively positive narrative of transgender ageing. On the one hand, transgender ageing is portrayed as a potential escape from both time and growing old, a form of “rebirth”. On the other hand, failure emerges as a constant threat, including both the failure to perform age-appropriate femininity and failure in the sense of becoming stuck with self-loathing and shame. The protagonist’s struggles to age successfully become intimately connected with pride and standing up for oneself, struggles that are in turn bound to homonationalist discourses of Scandinavian progressiveness and LGBT exceptionalism.
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2021
Subjectivity is a widely explored topic in dementia studies, in both the humanities and the socia... more Subjectivity is a widely explored topic in dementia studies, in both the humanities and the social sciences. Persistent discourses of “a loss of self” in dementia have been challenged by scholars, who argue for the need for continued recognition of the person with dementia and that subjectivity in dementia may be sustained. So far, however, there is a lack of discussion about the significance of gender, and how being recognised as a subject overall is closely intertwined with being recognised as a gendered subject. This article explores how gender matters to the recognition of subjectivity in dementia. But it also explores how dementia as a position of cognitive otherness may impact upon and disrupt gender performativity. The discussion builds on narratives from an interview study on intimacy and sexual relationships among heterosexual couples living with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the narrative of the Swedish autobiographical novel Minns du? [Do you remember?] (Beckman, 2019 )...
This chapter explores touch as an essential aspect of ageing embodiment, which also has a signifi... more This chapter explores touch as an essential aspect of ageing embodiment, which also has a significant impact on experiences of gendered and sexual embodiment in later life. Drawing on an empirical study with older Swedish men who were both interviewed and asked to write ‘body diaries’ about their everyday embodiment, the research argues that their narratives of touch constitute alternative representations of both male sexuality and ageing embodiment as phallic discourses inevitably signifying decline and decay. In recent years, the increasing emphases of sexuality as vital to the accomplishment of successful ageing often overlook the more complex nuances of older people’s experiences of sexuality and intimacy, which may involve loss, pain and illness as well as unbounded joys. In contrast, this chapter concludes that a turn to touch directs us to the simultaneous vulnerability and potential for pleasure and excitation in ageing embodiment.
Intimate partner violence is often known to a wider social network. Still little research exists ... more Intimate partner violence is often known to a wider social network. Still little research exists on the experiences of social networks, how they respond and how women and children experiencing intimate partner violence perceive these responses. This article draws on 16 qualitative interviews with women victims of intimate partner violence, intimate partner violence-exposed children and their relatives in three kin networks. The overall aim of this article is to study responses to intimate partner violence from a multivocal perspective where the possibly concurring and conflicting perspectives of both the victims and the networks are heard. More specifically, the article explores what responses are perceived as possible/impossible to end violence and create safety for women and children. The article shows how masculinity, in intersection with kin position and age, figures both as an obstacle and a possibility to end intimate partner violence. Moreover, the article shows that response...
People with cognitive disabilities are commonly positioned as risky sexual subjects. This article... more People with cognitive disabilities are commonly positioned as risky sexual subjects. This article discusses the discursive produc- tion of sexual normates in the form of desirable and normative able-minded sexual subjects, in scientific research on the sexuality and cognitive disabilities of younger and older individuals (in par- ticular those with dementia). We identify three interrelated dis- courses: regulating sexuality; fostering sexuality; and preserving sexuality. The first of these, regulation, pathologises sexuality of people with cognitive disabilities as faulty and in need of restric- tion. The second discourse, fostering, is more affirmative and argues for educating for a ‘healthy’ sexuality of people with cog- nitive disabilities, to mitigate risks of abuse. This discourse is more salient with younger people. The third discourse, preserva- tion, in contrast, is more visible with older people with dementia and affirms sexuality so long as it is consistent with a ‘genuine’ or ‘authentic’ sexuality of the past. In conclusion, scientific research reinforces the cultural ideal of the rational and autonomous indi- vidual (and as such the mature/adult) capable of making inde- pendent decisions and engaging in healthy, good sex, based on stable sexual identities. Findings demonstrate how age intersects with cognitive ableism to intensify the cultural anxiety that exists around the sexualities of people with cognitive disabilities.
Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging, 2019
Older people are often assumed to be both asexual and de-gendered, meaning that sexuality is ofte... more Older people are often assumed to be both asexual and de-gendered, meaning that sexuality is often overlooked in the older population (Barrett and Hinchcliff 2017). Moreover, even when sexuality is acknowledged within gerontology, heterosexu- ality is often assumed (Westwood 2016; King 2016a). Gerontology has thus been hetero- normative: heterosexuality is viewed as the taken-for-granted and desirable norm. It is also cis-normative, making the assumption that a per- son’s current gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth. The term queering gerontology in this entry refers to attempts by critical gerontologists/ageing scholars to interro- gate and challenge these assumptions in main- stream gerontology by drawing on queer theory.
New sexual scripts on later life are emerging, discourses on “sexy oldies” challenge pervasive di... more New sexual scripts on later life are emerging, discourses on “sexy oldies” challenge pervasive discourses on asexual old age. Still, sexuality among people with dementia, who are generally older, is rarely affirmed. Research on sexuality and dementia is, more- over, dominated by biomedical accounts that regard sexual and intimate behaviours as expressions of pathology. However, sexual- ity and intimacy could be significant aspects of later life, also when living with dementia. This qualitative study explores experi- ences of sexuality and intimacy among heterosexual couples where one partner was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Interviews were conducted with seven couples, aged 55–87, and both the person with the dementia diagnosis and their partner participated. The findings point to a diversity of experiences, with differences between the older and younger couples. The older couples experienced changes more as a result of embodied age- ing, and sexuality and intimacy were experienced as sources of pleasure, comfort and recognition. The younger couples under- stood changes more as caused by Alzheimer’s disease and experi- enced a greater loss of intimacy and desire. The study shows how experiences of sexuality and intimacy when living with dementia are shaped by varying sexual scripts and expectations of health in different parts of the life course.
Addressing the sexual rights of older people: Theory, policy and practice, 2017
The sexualities of older men are ambiguous and ridden with contradictions. Some men's sexual attr... more The sexualities of older men are ambiguous and ridden with contradictions. Some men's sexual attractiveness is more readily recognized, also as they become older. This chapter highlights older men's diverse experiences and attitudes toward sexuality in later life and how these can be understood and translated into improved understanding of their sexual rights. Three ways in which men relate to sexuality in later life are elaborated on in the following: aspirations to continued sexual assertion, potency and performance; renouncing sexuality; and redefining and broadening concepts of sex and sexuality. There are also differences between men with respect to whether the renunciations of sexuality are voluntary and experienced as a freedom or if they were felt as involuntary. Both heterosexual and non-heterosexual men report that sexual interest and desire may decline as one ages. For some heterosexual men, experiences of ageing embodiment, including but not limited to a decline in erectile function, meant an increasing focus on wider pleasures
Despite person-centred approaches increasingly focusing on looking at the person in dementia inst... more Despite person-centred approaches increasingly focusing on looking at the person in dementia instead of the pathology, the role of gender in dementia has been little explored. This article discusses how pervasive discourses on a loss of self and dementia as abject are interwoven with a de-gendering of persons with dementia. The cultural anxiety that dementia evokes in terms of loss of bodily and cognitive control could also be linked to a failure to normatively and intelligibly express gender when living with dementia. As a way to sustain personhood for people with dementia and challenge discourses on people with dementia as 'non-people', person-centred approaches have emphasised the collaborative work of carers, relatives and persons with dementia. Often implicitly, this also involves a 're-gendering' of persons with dementia where gendered biographies and pasts are upheld and gendered embodied selfhood is maintained through, for example, dress, hair and other aspects of appearance. This re-gendering could be of great significance for people with dementia to become intelligible as 2 persons. Still, dementia studies must further consider non-normative expressions of gender and involve feminist theorising on gender as a power asymmetry since some embodiments and selves are more likely to be sustained in dementia than others.
This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in ag... more This paper explores the potential for cultural gerontology to extend its ideas of diversity in aging experiences by opening space to rethink conceptions of successful aging futures. We propose a 'queering' of aging futures that disrupts the ways that expectations of a good later life and happy aging are seen to adhere to some bodies and subjectivities over others. Drawing on feminist, queer, and crip theories, we build on existing critiques of 'successful aging' to interrogate the assumptions of heteronormativity, able-bodiedness and able-mindedness that shape the dividing lines between success and failure in aging, and which inform attempts to 'repair' damaged futures. Conclusions suggest that recognizing diversity in successful aging futures is important in shaping responses to the challenges of aging societies, and presents an opportunity for critical cultural gerontology to join with its theoretical allies in imagining more inclusive alternatives.
This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and ... more This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and boys in Sweden, and how it has been used and developed. Sweden has a relatively long history of public debate, research, and policy intervention in gender issues and gender equality. This has meant, in sheer quantitative terms, a relatively sizeable corpus of work on men, masculinities, and gender relations. There is also a rather wide diversity of approaches, theoretically and empirically, to the analysis of men and masculinities. The Swedish national context and gender equality project is outlined. This is followed by discussion of three broad phases in studies on men and masculinities in Sweden: the 1960s and 1970s before the formulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the 1980s and 1990s when the concept was important for a generation of researchers developing studies in more depth; and the 2000s with a younger generation committed to a variety of feminist and gender critiques other than those associated with hegemonic masculinity. The following sections focus specifically on how the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used, adapted, and indeed not used, in particular areas of study: boys and young men in family and education; violence; and health. The article concludes with review of how hegemonic masculinity has been used in Swedish contexts, as: gender stereotype, often out of the context of legitimation of patriarchal relations; “Other” than dominant, white middle-class “Swedish,” equated with outmoded, nonmodern, working-class, failing boy, or minority ethnic masculinities; a new masculinity concept and practice, incorporating some degree of gender equality; and reconceptualized and problematized as a modern, heteronormative, and subject-centered concept.
This chapter discusses a discursive shift on sex, sexuality and older people from notions of ‘the... more This chapter discusses a discursive shift on sex, sexuality and older people from notions of ‘the asexual oldie’ to the contemporary ‘sexy senior’. While later life has historically been associated with asexuality older people are today discussed as sexually active and interested. In both cultural and scientific representations sexuality and an active sex life are increasingly understood as lifelong and part of a healthy and positive ageing. However, recent discourses on sexy seniors often reproduce narrow conceptualisations of sex and sexuality, dependent on male erections and confined to penile – vaginal intercourse. Qualitative research point to a more nuanced and complex picture where sexuality involves also non-coital pleasures such as cuddling and touch.
Recent years have seen increasing discussions of sexuality in later life. Today, continued sexual... more Recent years have seen increasing discussions of sexuality in later life. Today, continued sexual activity is gradually understood as a positive and healthy aspect of aging, in contrast to how aging historically was primarily associated with asexuality. Old men’s sexual function, in particular, has been a topic of notable interest to scholars and popular media alike, an interest spurred not least by the market introduction of Viagra and other sexuo-pharmaceuticals. If aging men’s sexual function has been the object of extensive discussion, considerably less attention has been given to the question of sexual desire in later life, neither women’s nor men’s. Old men’s sexual desire is a potentially conflictual field as men are often expected to be sexually willing but the old man who shows continued sexual interest also run the risk of being labeled a “dirty old man.” This article focuses on old men, masculinity, and sexual desire through the interview narratives of Swedish med between sixty-seven and eighty-seven years old. In dialogue with Sara Ahmed’s work on queer phenomenology, the article discusses asserted sexual desire as a form of orientation that shapes old men’s heterosexual subjectivities. The interviewees expressed that sexual desire continued to be an important aspect of later life, but sexual desire was also understood to vanish as one aged. For those who expressed a lack of sexual desire, this was sometimes experienced as a “gender trouble” but was also made sense of in relation to feeling old. All on all, intimacy was a central way of making sense of later life sexuality. The article concludes that narratives on intimacy could be understood as ways of retaining a heterosexual orientation as one ages. Through narratives of intimacy men could express a continued interest in sexuality, but in positive and unthreatening ways that avoided the stigmatization of being a dirty old man.
Grandparents whose grandchildren are exposed to domestic violence are faced with some unique chal... more Grandparents whose grandchildren are exposed to domestic violence are faced with some unique challenges in their grandparenting, which have thus far been little discussed in research. This paper discusses the narratives of 10 Swedish grandparents whose grandchildren have been exposed to violence towards their mother. The aim was to explore grandparents' narrations of their responses in the face of violence, and their understanding of the role they play in their grandchildren's social networks. Two significant responses are discussed: ‘being there’ and ‘acknowledging the independence and self-determination of the adult children’. Grandparents experienced these responses as contradictory and felt powerless when it came to their possibilities to protect their grandchildren. The paper suggests that grandparents could be a resource for domestic violence services, and social work practice needs to assess the roles of grandparents of children exposed to domestic violence. Social workers should consider the challenges these grandparents are facing and what support they may need in order to support their grandchildren.
Går det att vara sexuellt aktiv på äldreboendet? Hur kan man öka sexlusten när man blir äldre? Hu... more Går det att vara sexuellt aktiv på äldreboendet? Hur kan man öka sexlusten när man blir äldre? Hur påverkar kroppens hormoner sexualiteten när man åldras? Vad är äldres sexuella rättigheter? Vad kan bidra till förbättrad sexuell hälsa hos äldre hbtq-personer? Och kan man ha sex med en slak penis?
Denna antologi synliggör och ökar kunskapen om äldres sexualitet. Sexuell hälsa är en grundläggande del av hälsan och välbefinnandet under hela livet men många som arbetar med äldre saknar kunskap om äldres sexualitet. Boken är ett samarbete mellan forskare och erfarna sexualupplysare där läsaren får ta del av både forskning och kliniska erfarenheter från området.
Antologin utgår från normkritiska perspektiv och synliggör den mångfald som finns av både äldre personer och av sexualiteter. Den har en positiv och bekräftande syn på sexualitet samtidigt som den också behandlar problem och utmaningar som kan uppstå.
Boken riktar sig till alla som arbetar med äldre och kan användas inom utbildningar i hälso- och sjukvård, omsorg och socialt arbete. Den ger både kunskap och konkreta verktyg för att kunna främja äldres sexualitet. Boken innehåller även kunskap och råd riktade till äldre själva.
Bokens redaktörer är forskaren Linn Sandberg, docent i genusvetenskap och verksam vid Södertörns högskola, och Suzann Larsdotter, auktoriserad sexolog och legitimerad hälso- och sjukvårdskurator. Sandberg har under många år forskat om äldres sexualitet och Larsdotter har lång erfarenhet av att föreläsa och utbilda kring området.
This book puts the critical into dementia studies. It makes a timely and novel contribution to th... more This book puts the critical into dementia studies. It makes a timely and novel contribution to the field, offering a thought-provoking critique of current thinking and debate on dementia. Collectively the contributions gathered together in this text make a powerful case for a more politically engaged and critical treatment of dementia and the systems and structures that currently govern and frame it.
The book is inter-disciplinary and draws together leading dementia scholars alongside dementia activists from around the world. It frames dementia as first and foremost a political category. The book advances both theoretical and methodological thinking in the field as well as sharing learning from empirical research. Outlining the limits to existing efforts to frame and theorise the condition, it proposes a new critical movement for the field of dementia studies and practice.
The book will be of direct interest to researchers and scholars in the field of dementia studies and wider fields of health, disability and care. It will provide a novel resource for students and practitioners in the fields of dementia, health care and social care. The book also has implications for dementia policymaking, commissioning and community development.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
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Denna antologi synliggör och ökar kunskapen om äldres sexualitet. Sexuell hälsa är en grundläggande del av hälsan och välbefinnandet under hela livet men många som arbetar med äldre saknar kunskap om äldres sexualitet. Boken är ett samarbete mellan forskare och erfarna sexualupplysare där läsaren får ta del av både forskning och kliniska erfarenheter från området.
Antologin utgår från normkritiska perspektiv och synliggör den mångfald som finns av både äldre personer och av sexualiteter. Den har en positiv och bekräftande syn på sexualitet samtidigt som den också behandlar problem och utmaningar som kan uppstå.
Boken riktar sig till alla som arbetar med äldre och kan användas inom utbildningar i hälso- och sjukvård, omsorg och socialt arbete. Den ger både kunskap och konkreta verktyg för att kunna främja äldres sexualitet. Boken innehåller även kunskap och råd riktade till äldre själva.
Bokens redaktörer är forskaren Linn Sandberg, docent i genusvetenskap och verksam vid Södertörns högskola, och Suzann Larsdotter, auktoriserad sexolog och legitimerad hälso- och sjukvårdskurator. Sandberg har under många år forskat om äldres sexualitet och Larsdotter har lång erfarenhet av att föreläsa och utbilda kring området.
The book is inter-disciplinary and draws together leading dementia scholars alongside dementia activists from around the world. It frames dementia as first and foremost a political category. The book advances both theoretical and methodological thinking in the field as well as sharing learning from empirical research. Outlining the limits to existing efforts to frame and theorise the condition, it proposes a new critical movement for the field of dementia studies and practice.
The book will be of direct interest to researchers and scholars in the field of dementia studies and wider fields of health, disability and care. It will provide a novel resource for students and practitioners in the fields of dementia, health care and social care. The book also has implications for dementia policymaking, commissioning and community development.
The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.