Aging and masculinity: Portrayals in men's magazines

‘I am busy independent woman who has sense of humor, caring about others’: older adults’ self-representations in online dating profiles

“…Our findings also revealed that older adults’ self-portrayals in their profiles conformed to socially entrenched ideas about ideal masculine and feminine characteristics. The men tended to place an emphasis on their interests and engagement in paid work, creating an image of a masculine individual who was competent at pursuing, amassing and maintaining economic capital (Calasanti and King 2005; Hurd Clarke, Bennett and Liu 2014). In contrast, the women highlighted their cheerful attitudes, sociability and other-focused nature, thereby underscoring qualities that have been traditionally associated with femininity (McWilliams and Barrett 2014).…”

“…In addition, online dating profiles often reflect idealised standards of masculinity and femininity (Frohlick and Migliardi 2011; Jagger 2005), suggesting that the older adults may be adhering to a gender script that is both approved by and relevant to their particular culture in order to attract a future partner (Stockard 2006). According to such scripts, an idealised feminine image is based primarily on youthfulness and beauty (Woodward 2006), whereas social and economic status typically represents masculinity because it corresponds to power (Calasanti and King 2005; Hurd Clarke, Bennett and Liu 2014). Research found that regardless of their age, women generally depict themselves in online dating profiles as glamorous, slim and youthfully attractive (DeAndrea et al 2012; McWilliams and Barrett 2014; Toma, Hancock and Ellison 2008; Whitty 2008), while men emphasise their social power and vitality by calling attention to their financial assets and educational attainment (Alterovitz and Mendelsohn 2009; Jagger 2005).…”

Ageism and Sexuality

“…Due to the emphasis on youthfulness by mass media, older men and women are underrepresented in advertisements. Moreover, when they do appear, they are typically peripheral, grouped with others or in a specific context such as insurance plans (Hurd Clarke et al 2014;Low and Dupuis-Blanchard 2013). Images of older people relating to specific advertisements, such as pensions or health care products are associated with notions of burden frailty, loneliness or vulnerability (Media and diversity in an ageing society, [2002][2003][2004], which reflect stereotypical expectations about later life (Prieler 2012;Williams et al 2010) and convey them to society.…”

Unmasking the ‘elderly mystique’: Why it is time to make the personal political in ageing research

“…A third representation of older people is as wealthy retirees, or Third Agers (Gilleard and Higgs, 2000). This work suggests the stereotyping of older people into clearly defined groups: the needy, helpless and/or invisible (Clarke 2006), as greedy and lazy 'Third Agers' with surplus income and time (Gilleard and Higgs, 2000) and as the wise older man (Clarke et. al., 2014).…”