“I’m Pleased with My Body”: Older Men’s Perceptions and Experiences of Their Aging Bodies

Abstract

To date, the body image literature has largely ignored older men, as the bulk of the research has focused on young and middle-aged women. Where studies have been conducted with older men, they have tended to only consider the perspectives of men in their 50s and 60s or to include older men as part of mixed gender or diverse age samples. Thus, little is known about how older men perceive, experience, and feel about their aging and changing bodies, even as the body is central to older men’s understanding and practice of masculinity as well as their position in age- and gender-based systems of inequality. Addressing this gap in the research, we conducted in-depth interviews with 22 community-dwelling men aged 67–90 years (average age of 77 years). Drawing upon age relations and masculinities theorizing, we asked the men about how they evaluated and felt about their appearances, health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning. Our thematic analysis revealed that the men were largely satisfied with their appearances and physical functioning, particularly their approximation to masculine ideals of youthfulness, healthiness, and independence. Whereas half of the men identified their weight as a source of body satisfaction, all of the men disparaged obesity and stereotypical older men’s enlarged stomachs in particular. That said, the men discounted appearance as an unimportant and feminized concern. In contrast, they emphasized the salience of health and body functionality, expressing concern about how changes to their physical abilities and sexual functioning had already affected, and might in the future increasingly delimit, their daily lives, and hence they preferred social and physical pursuits. We consider our findings in light of age and masculinity ideals, which collectively privilege youthful bodies and subordinate older men.

Keywords

aging body image appearance health physical abilities sexuality hegemonic masculinity identity age relations

The body is central to a man’s understanding and practice of masculinity (Slevin and Linneman, 2010). Cultural ideals of manhood shape men’s body image or their body-related perceptions, experiences, and feelings (Cash, 2004; Tiggemann, 2004), which are underpinned by age relations or the use of age as an organizing principle of society (Laws, 1995). Within an age-based system of inequality, young and middle-aged adults accrue power over the old, who face increasing disadvantage as they age (Calasanti, 2007). As well as resulting in ageist discriminatory policies and practices in health care, employment, and everyday social interactions (Hurd Clarke and Korotchenko, 2016; José, Amado, Ilinca, Buttigieg, and Larsson, 2017), age relations combine with other social inequities to reinforce the privileging of certain identities and bodies over others (Calasanti and Slevin, 2001). There are multiple, emergent relationally, historically, and institutionally situated enactments of aging masculinity that derive from the dynamic intersections of class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, and age (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). These multiple masculinities are hierarchically positioned relative to hegemonic masculinity or “the currently most honored way of being a man” (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 832). Within the plurality of masculinities, hegemonic masculinities privilege youthful male bodies that are athletic, lean, healthy, productive, heterosexual, sexually virile, and independent (Calasanti and King, 2005; Thompson and Langendoerfer, 2016). Declining health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning and concomitant decreases in productive and performative capabilities result in the various enactments of aging manhood being perceived as less masculine (King and Calasanti, 2013) and being relegated to subordinate or complicit positions within the masculinities hierarchy (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005; Meadows and Davidson, 2006).

Despite the importance of the body to masculinities and age relations, body image research has largely ignored older men, and the majority of studies have focused on young and middle-aged women (Grogan, 2017). Where older men have been included in body image research, they have typically been part of mixed gender and/or diverse age samples (see for example, Baker and Gringart, 2009; de Souto Barreto, Ferrandez, and Guihard-Costa, 2011; Franzoi and Koehler, 1998; Mellor, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, McCabe, and Ricciardelli, 2010). The limited studies that have focused exclusively on older men have, with two exceptions (Drummond, 2003; Slevin and Linneman, 2010), only included men up to the age of 71 years (see, for example, Liechty, Ribeiro, Sveinson, and Dahlstrom, 2014; Phillips and de Man, 2010; Reddy, 2013; Tiggemann, Martins, and Kirkbride, 2007). As such, little is known about older men’s feelings about and evaluations of their aging bodies in later life. Research is needed to more fully examine how older men’s body image is shaped by age and masculinity norms and by ideals as well as how their views change and/or stay the same as they move into deep old age. Seeking to address this gap, we interviewed 22 men aged 67 years to 90 years, to explore how they perceived and experienced their aging bodies and the physical realities of growing older.

Older Men and Body Image

Body image encompasses individuals’ self-perceptions and self-attitudes towards their appearances, with a particular focus on body size, weight, and shape (Cash, 2004). The existing body image research suggests that older men tend to be more positive about their bodies (de Souto Barreto et al., 2011; Ferraro et al., 2008; Franzoi and Koehler, 1998; McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2004; Mellor et al., 2010; Peat, Peyerl, Ferraro, and Butler, 2011; Rakhkovskaya and Holland, 2017) and are less concerned about their appearances (Jankowski, Diedrichs, Williamson, Christopher, and Harcourt, 2016) as compared to younger men and older women. However, sexual orientation mediates men’s body perceptions and evaluations as gay men express more concern about and displeasure with their appearances as compared to heterosexual men (Jankowski, Diedrichs, and Halliwell, 2014; Lodge and Umberson, 2013; Murray and Touyz, 2012).

Body image research with men of varying ages has identified two key sources of appearance-related body dissatisfaction. Like their female counterparts, men often express displeasure with their weight as they equate fatness with poor health, a lack of self-discipline, and loss of attractiveness (Crawford, 1980, 2006; Grogan, 2017). Whereas most women want to lose weight, men’s feelings about their weight are polarized as some want to be leaner while others would like to weigh more (McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2004; Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein, and Striegel-Moore, 1986). The few studies that have considered older men’s feelings about their weight have found that they are more likely to express a desire to lose weight than younger men (Liechty et al., 2014; Tiggemann et al., 2007). Irrespective of age, men also often identify their body shape as a source of dissatisfaction and frequently report a desire to be more muscular and toned (McCabe and Riacciardelli, 2004; Pope, Phillips, and Olivardia, 2000; Tiggemann et al., 2007). Reflecting on the importance of these findings, Tiggemann et al. (2007) have suggested that “perhaps muscularity has become a ‘normative discontent’ for men, just as weight dissatisfaction has been characterized as normative for women” (p. 21).

At the same time, the extant research suggests that with age, concern for appearance is eclipsed by a growing emphasis on body functionality, particularly health and physical capabilities, but also sexual performance (Jankowski et al., 2016; Reddy, 2013; Tiggemann, 2004; Sandberg. 2013; Slevin and Linneman, 2010). While some studies have found that older men are satisfied with their appearances and are accepting of the physical changes that occur over time (Liechty et al., 2014; Slevin and Linneman, 2010), other research indicates that men’s body dissatisfaction increases in later life, primarily as a result of declining health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning, which collectively undermine their sense of masculine identity (Baker and Gringart, 2009; Drummond, 2003; Hurd Clarke, Griffin, and The PACC Research Team, 2008; Hurd Clarke and Bennett, 2013; Kaminski and Hayslip, 2006; Lodge and Umberson, 2013; Rakhkovskaya and Holland, 2017).

In summary, little is known about older men’s perceptions and experiences of their aging bodies. The research has yielded conflicting results concerning older men’s satisfaction with and acceptance of their aging appearances, and how their perceptions and attitudes are related to and influenced by changes to the physical and sexual functioning of their bodies in later life.

Study Design

Informed by age relations theory, this study entailed in-depth interviews with 22 men aged 67 years to 90 years. We recruited the participants from a large urban center in Canada through advertisements in local newspapers and posters in public facilities. The interviews were conducted by Laura Hurd and two trained research assistants in private homes (eight participants), at the university (eight participants), at public locations of the participants’ choosing (five participants), and by telephone (one participant). We conducted a total of 55 interview hours. The majority of participants were interviewed once, for between 2.0 and 3.5 hours. Two participants were interviewed across two and three sessions for a total of 4.0 and 6.75 hours respectively. As well as reimbursing their travel expenses, we offered the participants a $25 gift card as compensation for their time. Ethical approval was received from the local university, and all participants provided informed consent prior to the interviews.

Participants

The participants varied in terms of their ages, places of birth, marital statuses, level of education, employment histories, and household incomes. Most of the men were Canadian born, married, well-educated, retired, and from the middle or upper class. While 21 men identified as heterosexual, one man identified as homosexual. They all lived independently in the community. Nine men self-rated their health as excellent, eleven felt they were in good health, and two described their health status as poor. The men reported various health issues, such as arthritis, asthma, back pain/injuries, cancer, erectile dysfunction, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney conditions, osteoarthritis, and vision, hearing, and mobility impairments.

Procedures

We developed the interview schedule through a close reading of the existing literature pertaining to aging, masculinity, and body image. We asked the men to describe their thoughts and feelings about their bodies, specifically their appearances, health, physical abilities, and sexuality. To ensure anonymity, each participant was assigned a pseudonym, which is used in the findings section.

Analysis

All of the interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. We began our inductive, thematic analysis (Patton, 2002) by going through the transcripts to identify all of the different ways that the men spoke about their bodies and embodied experiences of aging. From there, we grouped the various body narratives into six broad thematic categories, namely (a) sources of body satisfaction, (b) sources of body dissatisfaction, (c) body philosophies, (d) comparisons to others, (e) importance of body image, and (f) thoughts and feelings about future anticipated, age-related body changes. We coded the data using NVivo 10 and then further worked to organize the themes and sub-themes into the three dominant ways that the men spoke about their aging bodies, namely, “I’m happy with it,” “I don’t think it’s all that important,” and ”It’s impactful on many different levels,” which we outline further. To ensure that our analysis was trustworthy, we used an audit trail to document our analytic decisions, informally sought feedback from our participants to confirm our interpretations, and employed rich descriptions in the presentation of our findings (Marshall and Rossman, 2016).

Findings

“I’m Happy with It”: Older Men’s Body Satisfaction

The majority of the men in our study expressed satisfaction with their bodies as they often made comments similar to those of Max, aged 90 years, who summarized his views in this way: “I’m pleased with my body.” When asked to elaborate on why they were pleased, the men revealed that their body-related satisfaction derived from two factors, namely, the sense that they appeared and felt youthful and that they embodied idealized masculine qualities like good health and independence. For example, Tony, aged 77 years, had this to say:

I’m happy with it – the youthful part of it…. I’m happy I look the way I look and not all wrinkled up and shrivelled up and I can walk without a cane. I like all that…and I’m in pretty good shape…for an old bugger…. My body—I’ve got no aches, no pains. I mean, I don’t know how good I’m supposed to feel but honestly, I feel great. So, yeah, it’s amazing, I don’t think my body has changed.

Highlighting the ways that they looked young, the men emphasized that their bodies had remained largely unchanged despite the passage of time. To accentuate their assertions that they had fared well in the aging process as well as to acknowledge their chronological ages, the men often compared themselves to the general age category of older men as they used qualifiers such as “for an old bugger” or “for an old man” to acknowledge the typical changes to appearance and body functionality that accompanied advancing age. Charlie, aged 87 years, stated:

I’m quite satisfied with my body…. It’s working reasonably well and .…I think I do pretty well for an old man. I’m reasonably slim…my posture isn’t all that bad. I have some hair. I feel quite happy with the way I look for my age…. I recognize that the body isn’t what it used to be [but] at 87 years of age, hey, you’re doing not too bad and keep it up.

For Charlie, having a functional body that enabled him to do the things he enjoyed as well as an attractive appearance characterized by slimness, an erect posture, and “some hair” were important sources of body satisfaction. When directly asked how they perceived that their own bodies compared to others, two-thirds of the men asserted that they were on par with their same-aged peers, as articulated by Steve, aged 87 years, who contended: “I’m a good, good average, physically…I haven’t got anything that really stands out…. I’m just the middle of the pack.” That said, one-third of the men felt that their bodies were superior to most of their same-aged peers. These men expressed strong feelings of pleasure and pride similar to Max:

I think I look damn good! When I go and I have a shower…and I don’t have anything on, I stand at the mirror and say, “God damn it, you look pretty damn good!”…I look better than a lot of people…at 90, I look much better…. I like my height and I like the way I turned out…. I’m quite happy at this weight…. My body hasn’t really changed…. I’m pleased that it works the way it does…. I’m able to be active, like riding my [stationary] bicycle.

Like Max, many of the men highlighted the things they were able to do with their bodies, such as riding a bike, as important aspects of their body satisfaction. Unlike the men over the age of 75 years in our sample, those in their 60s often contended that their bodies looked and worked better than many younger men’s bodies, as articulated by Melvin, aged 69 years, who asserted:

I do like the way I look. I do feel I’m quite attractive…. I find people who are younger than me, in their sixties, don’t look nearly as good…. I’m fairly thin…and when I look in the mirror, I see a young guy, I see a good looking guy…compared to a lot of people, even men younger than me and certainly some older or around my age, I think I’m in good shape and I look pretty good and I feel pretty handsome. I feel pretty good about my body in general…. I’m reasonably healthy…and have a decent amount of energy, [which] enables you to participate more fully life and to feel young and to feel healthy and vigorous.

In this way, the men used age-contextualized social comparisons to emphasize their personal satisfaction with their appearances, health, and body functionality.

Despite their stated satisfaction with their bodies overall, weight was a polarizing issue in many of the men’s body narratives. Half of the men expressed particular pleasure with their body weight, specifically the fact that they perceived themselves to be of normal weight, which they identified as one of the key sources of their body satisfaction. Victor, aged 68 years, put it this way:

The thing I like most about my body is that I’m not fat—the fact that my body’s fairly trim…. That’s one of the reasons why I exercise. I try not to fall into [the] state of ‘Yes, I’m 70, 80 years old, and your body should be, according to that age, fat and uglier.’

Noting that he worked at maintaining his youthful physique through exercise, Victor revealed that he had internalized the stereotype that old people were invariably overweight and thus unattractive. Repugnance of fatness was shared by all of the men, including the other half of the sample participants who perceived that they were overweight, much to their displeasure. Ted, aged 81 years, put it this way:

The thing I like least [about my body] is weight, being fat. I resent being obese or being overweight. The body is a temple—your body is important and abusing it is not right. It’s immoral or amoral…. My doctors have been recommending I lose weight ever since I was 25. “Lose weight! Lose weight!”…. I resent obesity in humanity and in myself too.

Irrespective of their assessments of their own weight, all of the men disparaged those who were overweight and obese as they used words like “ugly,” “unattractive,” “dumpy,” “not pretty,” and “horrendous” to describe fat, older men’s bodies. The men expressed particular displeasure towards overweight older men’s abdomens using descriptors such as “carbuncle,” “big gut,” “flabby in the belly,” “pot belly,” “beer belly,” “porko,” and “paunch” to refer to their own or other older men’s unruly stomachs. All of the men felt that there was no excuse for being overweight and having an unsightly belly, including Tony, who had lost 50 pounds through a combination of diet and exercise, and who stated:

When I had my high blood pressure and drank a lot, and I quit smoking, I was up to 210 pounds. So I said, “No, this is not acceptable.” I went to the gym every morning at 5 a.m. for an hour…and dieted, watched what I ate, and got down to 160 [pounds]. And that’s what I’ve been for the last 15 years…. I don’t ever want to get fat again…. I think with a little effort, people can keep their weight down.

The men who maintained lowered body weights attributed their success to personal discipline and self-control while those who were overweight shared the view that all that was needed was “a little effort” and perseverance in order to attain the masculine body ideal.

”I Don’t Think It’s All That Important”: Discounting Appearance

Although the majority of the men expressed overall satisfaction with their bodies even in the face of being overweight, they were also quick to downplay the importance of appearance, as noted by Steve:

I don’t think it’s all that important anymore…. Yes, it’s nice but I don’t think it means a great deal…. I think when you get to be 80 years old, you’re not trying to impress too many people…. Appearance doesn’t concern me quite frankly.

When asked to explain why appearance was inconsequential, the men offered a variety of reasons. Almost all of them emphasized that age-related changes to appearance were beyond their control and, therefore, not worth worrying about. The men frequently followed up their descriptions of the various ways that their appearances had altered over time, including the onset of baldness, gray hair, age spots, wrinkles, sagging skin, and loss of muscle tone with assertions that, as Tony reported, the physical signs of aging were “just part of life.” Other men were more blunt in their assertions about the insignificance of age-related appearance changes as they made comments similar to Mark, aged 80 years, who stated, “I couldn’t care less” and Arnold, aged 71 years, who contended, “Most men really don’t give a shit.” Dismissing appearance changes as trivial and beyond their concern, the men often stressed the importance of graciously accepting age-related alterations to appearance, as noted by 71-year-old Denis:

It’s completely natural and you just have to give into it…as gently as you can and not be bothered fighting it…the people who try and act and look younger than they are—what a waste of time and energy…. What’s wrong with a little gray hair?…. Might as well just accept it.

In addition to being pragmatic, one-quarter of the men contended that older adults did not place value on their looks beyond wanting, as Charlie asserted, ”to look nice, to look healthy, and look happy.” Noting that he was satisfied even if he did not approximate masculine ideals as embodied by Cary Grant, Luke, aged 77 years, felt that appearance was not a concern of older adults:

I’m happy with the way I look. Am I Cary Grant? No. But I don’t really have any complaints from an appearance standpoint. I present as neat as I can be and that’s it. I’m not a GQ model or anything like that so what you see is what you get…and nobody really cares…. I would be very surprised, enormously surprised, if anybody older, man or woman, thought about body image…what you look like is immaterial…. I think most seniors tend to be a lot more relaxed about these things.

Some of the men further reported that their perspective on appearance had changed over time such that aging had resulted in a shifting of priorities. For some men, the declining salience of appearance had to do with the fact that they were retired, as noted by Jesse, aged 83 years, who stated: “I think the concern about your body as you age drops…how I look now, what the hell difference does it make? You know, I don’t need to look good for a job anymore.” Many of these men also noted that because they were either married or happily single, and therefore not currently dating or trying to attract a new partner, they were less concerned about their looks. Danny, aged 79 years, put it this way: “The whole issue of being physically attractive is not really an issue anymore because I’m no longer courting women.” In this way, aging and the concomitant changing social roles and life course transitions freed the men from having to be as concerned about their appearances as compared to when they were younger.

One-quarter of the men also distanced themselves from concern for appearance because they considered such an outlook to be a feminized perspective or, in the words of 68-year-old Edgar, “a woman thing.” Jack, aged 75 years, disparaged concern for appearance as something that did not warrant valorization, as he asserted:

I really don’t care much about how I look. I care about how much value I can add to the interactions I’m having with people…. Men devote about 1/100 of the time to their appearance that women do…. It’s not very important to me. I just can’t put value on that.

While some of the men situated appearance as a trivial, feminine pursuit in an abstract sense, several men also referred to their wives in order to exemplify the differences in male and female concern for bodily looks. For example, Jesse contended the following:

Appearance is not important to me. It’s way more important to my wife. I get shit [from her] all the time. As a matter of fact, she was giving me hell that I was meeting you like this-so casual[ly dressed]. But, anyway, appearance is not high profile for me…. My wife would worry much more than I would…she is much more sensitive about how she looks physically and also clothes.

The men thereby accounted for any attention they gave to their appearances as a way to appease their wives rather than as something that they inherently deemed important.

Finally, a few men contended that because they had never considered themselves to be attractive in their younger years, changes to their appearances over time had not resulted in feelings of loss or an undermined sense of identity and self-esteem. Harvey, aged 72 years, stated: “Well, it wasn’t ever a big problem for me because I never felt attractive physically and…so eventually by the time I get to this age it doesn’t really matter that much.” These men often pointed to their accomplishments in the workplace or their family relationships as things that were of greater importance to them than how they looked. Changes to their appearances were therefore not experienced as fundamentally threatening to their sense of identity or social worth.

“It’s Impactful on Many Different Levels”: Changing Health and Functional Abilities

Although they dismissed appearance as unimportant, the men offered markedly different perspectives on already experienced and potential future changes to their health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning. All of the men stated that such changes had already had or might eventually have far-reaching and deeply concerning impacts on various aspects of their lives. For example, Melvin described how activities of daily living that were previously taken for granted were increasingly difficult, if not impossible to do, which collectively made him feel old:

Body function is very important. Anytime it’s being diminished in a significant way…it’s impactful on many different levels, for sure. It’s more important than physical appearance. You really feel your age…if all of sudden you have trouble squeezing the toothpaste or opening a jar…or it’s painful to do things or you’re having some tendinitis in your shoulder…all these things short of chip away at your physical image, your physical strength and functionality, and your mental strength and well-being and your sense of identity, and you feel more vulnerable…and you feel older.

Most of the men reported that they had had to modify or give up preferred physical and sexual pursuits because as Ben, aged 71 years, noted, “we have to go more slowly…things that we previously were able to do easily, they’re not as easy to do.” Some men were pragmatic about these changes, like Charlie who described how impotence had meant that he and his wife no longer had sexual intercourse but instead had found other ways to express and maintain intimacy: “With some regret, I lost all sexual activity years go…It’s just something that comes with life and you live without it. But you still hug and you still kiss and you still hold hands and you still love one another.” However, most men experienced changes to their health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning as an assault on their quality of life, as articulated by Victor, aged 68:

The body takes a beating…especially an old person…. I dislike that I cannot do the things I could do if I was 30 years old…like getting more involved in things or going dancing more often…. We used to go to nightclubs and I didn’t feel like a grandpa there…. My body will not allow me to do the things that I used to do…and I don’t want to start square dancing or lawn bowling…that means I’m really old.

Lamenting that he could no longer dance for hours at nightclubs and that he stood out uncomfortably in such spaces because of his age, Victor resisted adopting alternative activities like square dancing and lawn bowling, which he associated with the socially devalued state of being old. In this way, internalized ageism and masculinity ideals that emphasized physical and sexual activity mediated his feelings about and perceptions of his changing body.

As well as constraining their daily lives, changes to their health, physical abilities, and sexual functioning were experienced by almost all of the men as threats to their sense of masculine identity. In particular, the men often noted that their changing bodily abilities destabilized their understanding of themselves as young, strong, mentally tough, sexually virile, and invulnerable. Many of the men noted that they felt increasingly undermined or “diminished” by their bodies, as articulated by Danny, aged 79 years, who stated: “Because I have a body, I can do everything that I do—I can have my experiences. And when that body is diminished in its functions in any way at all, then I am diminished.” Ted reflected on how his changing sexual abilities had impacted his self-esteem: “I can’t get an erection anymore…. I [feel] diminished. It’s pretty hard on my ego.” Expressing awareness of age relations, the men thereby noted that their declining bodily abilities challenged their well-being and undermined their cultural currency as youthful, masculine men, as articulated by Jack:

The physical losses are noticeable every day…. I have more recently felt older and more disabled and, as a result, in a very, very different position in society than I have spent the vast majority of my life. I feel more disabled generally because of a combination of an aging body and limitations provided by diminishing or shrinking eyesight…and the changes with regards to libido.

In this way, the men asserted that changes to their physical and sexual abilities increasingly marked them as old and negatively impacted their social position in the masculinities hierarchy.

Related to their growing sense of embodied oldness, the men additionally expressed fears about the eventual ramifications of their changing health and physical functionality. While they were more sanguine about their altered sexual capabilities, the men were particularly worried about how continued physical losses would threaten their autonomy. Close to half of the men reported having already experienced cognitive declines, specifically memory loss, which they found particularly distressing. Tony recounted the following:

It’s scary. Very, very scary. I put the keys down and I lose them…. I put my glasses down, and I lose them. And then I panic. I honestly panic. There’s no Alzheimer’s in my family but…you don’t know…. And then I find my glasses and I’m saying, ‘Oh stupid!’ But it’s worrisome…and I get very frustrated.

As well as being afraid of future cognitive declines, several men articulated a growing sense that their current independence was fleeting in the face of uncertain, if not precarious, future bodily changes. Oliver, aged 67 years, asserted the following:

[Health] is very important. I mean, it can mean the difference between doing what I’m doing and then winding up in long-term assisted living…. Everybody is one injury or accident…or illness away—you know, stroke, heart attack, some fall…. I’d hate to wind up in a nursing home.

As such, most of the men expressed anxiety, if not dread, that changing physical and cognitive abilities would ultimately result in their becoming institutionalized, a fate they viewed with “abhorrence,” as described by 68-year-old Bruce:

I have a fear, a horror, of aging. A nursing home is not for me. I don’t want it…I worked in nursing homes and got to know the inner stages of nursing home life and so, no, I don’t want it. I won’t have it…. I have an abhorrence of a nursing home life.

Thus, the men’s present overall satisfaction with their bodies and dismissal of appearance as a legitimate masculine concern were juxtaposed against their perception that their bodies’ current physical and social status would not last forever because, as Edgar stated, “nothing is guaranteed…basically what it boils down to is, it’s the shits getting old.”

Discussion and Conclusions

In this study, we examined how men aged 67 years to 90 years perceived and evaluated their aging bodies, finding that they were generally pleased with and appreciative of their appearances, health, and body functionality. In particular, the men described their appearances and physical abilities as a source of pride and pleasure. While they often downplayed appearance as an insignificant and feminized pursuit, many of the men were frustrated with and concerned about the ways that their changing physical abilities and sexual functioning had limited their daily lives, altered their relationships with partners, and threatened their present and future quality of life. Our findings are in line with previous research, which has found that men tend to be satisfied with their bodies overall (de Souto Barreto et al., 2011; Ferraro et al., 2008; Franzoi and Koehler, 1998; Liechty et al., 2014; McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2004; Mellor et al., 2010; Peat et al., 2011; Rakhkovskaya and Holland, 2017), consider appearance to be inconsequential (Jankowski et al., 2016), emphasize the importance of health and body functionality (Liechty et al., 2014; Reddy, 2013), and perceive aging to be physically, sexually, and socially detrimental (Drummond, 2003; Hurd Clarke et al., 2008; Lodge and Umberson, 2013; Rakhkovskaya and Holland, 2017; Sandberg, 2013; Slevin and Linneman, 2010).

Our findings differ from those of earlier studies in a number of important ways. Whereas previous research has found that older men generally want to lose weight (Liechty et al., 2014; Tiggemann et al., 2007), half of the men in our sample viewed their body weight as a laudable accomplishment as well as a key reason for their body satisfaction and the perception that they were physically and sexually attractive. On the one hand, the men’s perspectives might be a product of sampling bias whereby individuals who were more interested in exercise and health, and thus more likely to be of normal weight, would be drawn to a study conducted in a kinesiology department. Similarly, their body weight and health practices might be reflective of their privileged social positions within the masculinities hierarchy as they were primarily white, middle and upper-class individuals who had greater access to health-promoting lifestyles associated with normal weight. Nevertheless, the fact that so many of the men were satisfied with their body weight is particularly noteworthy, given the high rates of body weight dissatisfaction among women and younger men (Grogan, 2017). Moreover, their assumption that normal weight was achievable by all through the proper disciplining of the body speaks to their internalization of increasingly prevalent cultural health messages that a healthy body is a personal responsibility as well as the product of individual effort (Crawford, 1980, 2006).

The men’s repugnance towards overweight men’s abdomens is also important. Valorizing toned, slim, youthful, and strong bodies with flat stomachs, the men articulated an awareness of the ageist stereotype of the fat, sexually undesirable, slothful old man with a large belly. Expressing a preference for a particular body shape rather than an overt drive for muscularity (Tiggemann et al., 2007), the men equated fat stomachs with oldness and unattractiveness. In this way, being fat was not only considered unhealthy and ugly, it was also imbued with age and gender relations (Calasanti, 2007; Calasanti and Slevin, 2001; King and Calasanti, 2013). Being of normal weight and specifically having a toned stomach was a means for the men to project a valued, youthful, masculine identity and to distance themselves from the devaluation of oldness within society more generally and multiple masculinities more specifically.

Our findings illuminate the centrality of age and the body to masculinities. The men’s satisfaction with their bodies reflected their perceived bodily approximation to masculine ideals of youth, strength, autonomy, health, and productivity (Calasanti and King, 2005; Thompson and Langendoerfer, 2016). In contrast, their declining physical and sexual abilities were perceived as a source of dismay and as a threat to their quality of life and masculine identities. What the men dreaded most was the way that aging might culminate in a further loss of masculinity, signified by the senility, poor health, loss of mobility, dependence, and institutionalization associated with advanced old age. In other words, while they were pragmatic about some changes to their physical and sexual abilities, the men feared their subordination in the masculinities hierarchies as their bodies’ functionality continued to erode and to deviate from privileged ideals (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005; Meadows and Davidson, 2006).

One of the most important contributions our study makes is the inclusion of men over the age of 70 years. Previous research concerning older men and body image has primarily focused on individuals in their 50s and 60s. As such, our study built upon and extended that research by exploring the perspectives of men into advanced older age. Our findings suggest that older men’s body narratives and attitudes do not dramatically shift over time, but rather remain relatively constant in old age. Our research provides important insights into the tensions that exist for men as they navigate the appearance, and the physical and sexual realities, of aging within a cultural context in which idealized masculinities are associated with youthfulness, health, strength, sexual virility, productivity, and autonomy.

Our study is limited by its small, relatively homogenous convenience sample. Although they were diverse with respect to age, income, and education, the majority of the men were middle and upper class, Caucasian, and heterosexual. Future research is needed to explore the influence of sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity on older men’s body image as well as to more fully consider the perspectives of working class older men. Longitudinal research would offer insights into changes and stability in older men’s body image over time, particularly in relation to alterations to appearance, physical abilities, and sexual functioning.

In conclusion, our paper adds to the aging and body image literatures by providing an in-depth exploration of exclusively older men’s perceptions of and attitudes towards their aging bodies. Our study helps illuminate how life-course transitions like retirement and withdrawal from the dating scene as well as changes to health, physical abilities, and sexual activity influence the importance that older men give to appearance. In particular, our findings shed light on how and why health, physical abilities, and sexuality are more salient than appearance to older men’s body image and sense of masculine identity. Finally, our study provides insights into how older men experience and make sense of their changing bodies as they move through later life into deep old age.

Footnotes

Author’s Note

Raveena Mahal is now affiliated with Department of Sociology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant that was awarded to the first author.

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