Sexuality and aging: male body dilemmas

Abstract

The present study aims to encompass the intersection of the concepts of sexuality, aging and masculinity for the understanding of representations of the aged body for older men, such as sexuality and the challenges of maintaining masculinity in the contemporary world. The methodological aspects used for this purpose focus on an experience report of thematic workshops developed with the elderly, such men are frequenters of a social equipment and participants of groups of coexistence. Data recorded in field diaries were submitted to Bardin content analysis. As a result, we obtain, as results, the various factors that contribute to the construction of the subjectivity of the elderly with respect to the male body around sexuality, among them the values and the maintenance of the norms to the detriment of the contemporary meetings in the media and in the society. It is understood, therefore, that the aging in the present is a challenge that goes beyond loading the social stigmas, and inserts itself in a cultural dimension that standardizes the bodies, the sexual relations and the masculinity in a sphere that neutralizes the subject and the it fits into joviality.