Abstract
Focusing on cultural narratives about men's midlife crises, this article explores the more subtle forms that medicalization takes by broadening and re-orientating the concept of successful ageing away from strictly political, medical or/and sociological discussions of health and ageing and towards cultural representations of masculinity, optimization and the handling of a personal crisis. Using two examples; the British comedy Swimming with Men (2018) and the novel Doppler (2014) by Erlend Loe the article discusses the entanglement of masculinity, crisis and ageing and in doing so argues that cultural narratives about men's midlife crises do more than merely comment on already existing understandings of ageing and should in fact be understood as important components in the ongoing medicalization of middle-aged masculinities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 100926 |
| Journal | Journal of Aging Studies |
| Volume | 57 |
| ISSN | 0890-4065 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
Funding
Camilla Bruun Eriksen is an assistant professor at the University of Southern Denmark in the Department for the Study of Culture and part of the research project Medicine Man (2018–2022), funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, exploring how everyday culture and perceptions of middle-aged men's bodies unfold when masculinities are increasingly both mediatized and medicalized. Paying special attention to the shaping of bodies, medicalization, health and popular culture, Camilla has written on the intersections of fatness, embodiment, narrativity, power, gender and sexuality.
Keywords
- Cultural narrative
- Masculinities
- Men's midlife crisis
- Optimization
- Successful ageing
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