Suen Yiu Tung
a Gender Studies Programme , Chinese University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
J Homosex. 2017;64(3):397-414. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2016.1191233. Epub 2016 May 18.
Previous research saw older gay men as subject to structural marginalization of ageism but yet possessing agency to interpret aging in diverse ways. I move beyond this duality, drawing on the theory of defensive othering to understand how older gay men live with the aging discourse in the gay community. Informed by grounded theory, I analyzed interviews with 25 self-identified single gay men aged 50 or above in England inductively. It emerged that many older gay men found it difficult to escape the discourse that marginalizes the aging body. Even when they argued they were the exception and "looked good," they were discursively producing a two-tier system: they themselves as the "good older gay men," as opposed to the other "bad older gay men," who "had given up." Such a defensive othering tactic seemingly allowed them to resist age norms from applying to them personally, but unintentionally reinforced an ageist discourse.
先前的研究认为，年长的男同性恋者遭受年龄歧视的结构性边缘化，但他们仍有能力以多种方式解读衰老。我超越了这种二元性，借鉴防御性他者化理论来理解年长的男同性恋者如何在同性恋社区中面对衰老话语生活。基于扎根理论，我对英国25名年龄在50岁及以上、自我认同为单身的男同性恋者进行了访谈，并进行归纳分析。结果发现，许多年长的男同性恋者发现很难摆脱将衰老身体边缘化的话语。即使他们辩称自己是例外且“看起来不错”，他们在话语中也构建了一个两层体系：他们自己是“优秀的年长男同性恋者”，与那些“已经放弃”的其他“糟糕的年长男同性恋者”相对。这种防御性他者化策略似乎使他们能够抵制年龄规范对自己个人的适用，但却无意中强化了年龄歧视话语。
