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Dress, Gender and the Embodiment of Age: Men and Masculinities

Twigg, Julia (2018) Dress, Gender and the Embodiment of Age: Men and Masculinities. Ageing & Society, 40 (1). pp. 105-125. ISSN 0144-686X. E-ISSN 1469-1779. (doi:10.1017/S0144686X18000892) (KAR id:67284)

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Abstract

The study explores the role of clothing in the constitution of embodied masculinity in age, contrasting its results with an earlier study of women. It draws four main conclusions. First that men’s responses to dress were marked by continuity both with their younger selves and with mainstream masculinity, of which they still felt themselves to be part. Age was less a point of challenge or change than for many women. Second, men’s responses were less affected by cultural codes in relation to age. Dress was not, by and large, seen through the lens of age; and there was not the sense of cultural exile that had marked many of the women’s responses. Third, for some older men dress could be part of wider moral engagement, expressive of values linked positively to age, embodying old fashioned values that endorsed their continuing value as older men. Lastly dress in age reveals some of the ways in which men retain aspects of earlier gender privilege. The study was based on qualitative interviews with 24 men aged 58-85, selected to display a range in terms of social class, occupation, sexuality, employment and relationship status. It forms part of the wider intellectual movement of cultural gerontology that aims to expand the contexts in which we explore later years; and contributes to a new focus on materiality within sociology.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1017/S0144686X18000892
Uncontrolled keywords: dress, fashion, embodiment, masculinities, gender, materiality
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Funders: Organisations -1 not found.
Depositing User: Julia Twigg
Date Deposited: 13 Jun 2018 09:01 UTC
Last Modified: 04 Jul 2023 11:03 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/67284 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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