TY - JOUR
T1 - Harnessing progress
T2 - Gender, sexuality, and positive self-perceptions of aging in midlife
AU - Barbee, Harry
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Drawing on interviews, this article analyzes how lesbians, gay men, straight women, and straight men construct positive views of aging during midlife, a life course period when negative perceptions of aging are salient. Interviewees engaged in harnessing progress—a process of crafting personal aging narratives that emphasize growth and improvement—which helped them to feel positively about their own aging. All interviewees shared these progress narratives, but reports differed across gender and sexuality groups. Men's narratives focused on the wisdom they gained and how that made them more relevant to older and younger generations. Regarding the latter, straight men viewed their children as beneficiaries of their progress and gay men viewed younger LGBTQ people as beneficiaries. Women's progress narratives focused on self-improvement. Whereas straight women described becoming more self-reliant with age, lesbians described learning to stand up for themselves. Overall, findings reveal how gender and sexual identities—and the lifelong benefits and burdens that accompany those identities—influence how people create positive perceptions of aging.
AB - Drawing on interviews, this article analyzes how lesbians, gay men, straight women, and straight men construct positive views of aging during midlife, a life course period when negative perceptions of aging are salient. Interviewees engaged in harnessing progress—a process of crafting personal aging narratives that emphasize growth and improvement—which helped them to feel positively about their own aging. All interviewees shared these progress narratives, but reports differed across gender and sexuality groups. Men's narratives focused on the wisdom they gained and how that made them more relevant to older and younger generations. Regarding the latter, straight men viewed their children as beneficiaries of their progress and gay men viewed younger LGBTQ people as beneficiaries. Women's progress narratives focused on self-improvement. Whereas straight women described becoming more self-reliant with age, lesbians described learning to stand up for themselves. Overall, findings reveal how gender and sexual identities—and the lifelong benefits and burdens that accompany those identities—influence how people create positive perceptions of aging.
KW - Aging attitudes
KW - LGBTQ aging
KW - Middle-age
KW - Subjective aging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125200252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85125200252&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101008
DO - 10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101008
M3 - Article
C2 - 35654543
AN - SCOPUS:85125200252
SN - 0890-4065
VL - 61
JO - Journal of Aging Studies
JF - Journal of Aging Studies
M1 - 101008
ER -