Inclusivity, Horizontal Homosociality and Controlled Participation of “The Others”: Negotiations of Masculinity and Ageing in Two Older Men’s Communities
Open accessAbstract
Theories of inclusive masculinity and horizontal homosociality describe how previously marginalized forms of masculinity are becoming socially acceptable. Studies within these theoretical frameworks have largely focused on privileged groups of men and men’s changing attitudes towards homosexuality. This raises questions about the extent to which the theories apply to marginalized groups of men and other inequalities between men. In this article, we analyse ethnographic data from two Finnish older men’s communities that emphasize equality between men as an essential part of their ethos, and ask how inclusive practices and horizontal homosociality operate in these communities. Our intersectional analysis shows that older men’s communities may involve varying levels of inclusive practices that do not necessarily relate to sexuality but, instead, to other aspects of inequality. Future studies should consider the contextuality of men’s practices and the intersectional differences between men that are the subjects of these inclusive or exclusionary practices.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Social groups of ageing individuals can form homogeneous and inaccessible 'groups of exclusion' determined by compliance with constructed social codes.
“Research in gerontology suggests that social groups of ageing individuals can form homogeneous and inaccessible 'groups of exclusion' (Nielson et al. 2019: 28) determined by compliance with constructed social codes (Pietilä & Ojala 2021).”
From ‘I don’t care who joins my choir’: Investigating attitudes to diversity and inclusivity in lower- and upper-voice choirs in the United Kingdom (2025) · cites this paper as Pietilä & Ojala 2021
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 33
- Adams, A. (2011). “Josh wears pink cleats”. Inclusive masculinity on the soccer field. Journal of Homosexuality, 58(5), 579–596.
- Anderson, E. (2009). Inclusive masculinity. The changing nature of masculinities. London and New York: Routledge.
- Anderson, E., & Fidler, C. (2018). Elderly British men. Homohysteria and orthodox masculinities. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(3), 248–259.
- Anderson, E., & McCormack, M. (2015). Cuddling and spooning. Heteromasculinity and homosocial tactility among student-athletes. Men and Masculinities, 18(2), 214–230.
- Anderson, E., & McCormack, M. (2018). Inclusive masculinity theory. Overview, reflection and refinement. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(5), 547–561.
- Anderson, E., & McGuire, R. (2010). Inclusive masculinity theory and the gendered politics of men’s rugby. Journal of Gender Studies, 19(3), 249–261.
- Bird, S. R. (1996). Welcome to the men’s club. Homosociality and the maintenance of hegemonic masculinity. Gender and Society, 10(2), 120–132.
- Bridges, T., & Pascoe, C. J. (2014). Hybrid masculinities. New directions in the sociology of men and masculinities. Sociology Compass, 8(3), 246–258.
- Calasanti, T. (2003). Theorizing age relations. In S. Biggs, A. Lowenstein, & J. Hendricks (Eds.), The need for theory: Critical approaches to social gerontology for the 21st century (pp. 199–218). Amityville, NY: Baywood Press.
- Calasanti, T. (2004). Feminist gerontology and old men. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59(6), S305–S314.
- Connell, R., & Messerschmidt, J. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity. Rethinking the concept. Gender and Society, 19(6), 829–859.
- Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- De Visser, R., & Smith, J. A. (2006). Mister in-between. Journal of Health Psychology, 11(5), 685–695.
- Demetriou, D. Z. (2001). Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity. A critique. Theory and Society, 30(3), 337–361.
- Edley, N., & Wetherell, M. (1997). Jockeying for position: The construction of masculine identities. Discourse & Society, 8(2), 203–217.
- Hammarén, N., & Johansson, T. (2014). Homosociality: In between power and intimacy. Sage Open, 4(1), 1–11.
- Hearn, J. (1995). Imaging the aging of men. In M. Featherstone & A. Wernick (Eds.), Images of aging. Cultural representations of later life (pp. 97–115). London: Routledge.
- Holm, G. (2018). Justice through education in the Nordic countries: Critical issues and perspectives. Education Inquiry, 9(1), 1–3.
- King, N., & Calasanti, T. (2013). Men’s aging amidst intersecting relations of inequality. Sociology Compass, 7(9), 699–710.
- King, N., Calasanti, T., Pietilä, I., & Ojala, H. (2021, published online). The hegemony in masculinity. Men and Masculinities, 24(3), 432–450.
- Lipman-Blumen, J. (1976). Toward a homosocial theory of sex roles: An explanation of the sex segregation of social institutions. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 1(3, Part 2), 15–31.
- Meadows, R., & Davidson, K. (2006). Maintaining manliness in later life. Hegemonic masculinities and emphasized femininities. In T. M. Calasanti & K. F. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters. Realigning feminist thinking (pp. 295–312). New York: Routledge.
- Murray, A., & White, A. (2017). Twelve not so angry men. Inclusive masculinities in Australian contact sports. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 52(5), 536–550.
- O’Neill, R. (2015). Whither critical masculinity studies? Notes to inclusive masculinity theory, postfeminism, and sexual politics. Men and Masculinities, 18(1), 100–120.
- Ojala, H., Pietilä, I., & Nikander, P. (2016). Immune to ageism? Men’s perceptions of age-based discrimination in everyday contexts. Journal of Aging Studies, 39, 44–53.
- Roberts, S. (2018). Domestic labour, masculinity and social change. Insights from working-class young men’s transitions to adulthood. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(3), 274–287.
- Robinson, S., Anderson, E., & White, A. (2018). The bromance: undergraduate male friendships and the expansion of contemporary homosocial boundaries. Sex Roles, 78(1–2), 94–106.
- Seppänen, M., Tiilikainen, E., Ojala, H., & Pietilä, I. (2021). Place-bound rural community of older men: Social and autobiographical insideness of the Mill Village Boys in Finland. In M. Skinner, R. Winterton, & K. Walsh (Eds.), Rural gerontology. Towards critical perspectives on rural ageing (pp. 188–198). London: Routledge.
- Skeggs, B. (1994). Situating the production of feminist ethnography. In M. Maynard & J. Purvis (Eds.), Researching women’s lives. Basingstoke: Taylor and Francis.
- Spector-Mersel, G. (2006). Never-aging stories: Western hegemonic masculinity scripts. Journal of Gender Studies, 15(1), 67–82.
- Szebehely, M., & Meagher, G. (2018). Nordic eldercare – Weak universalism becoming weaker? Journal of European Social Policy, 28(3), 294–308.
- Thompson, E. H. (2006). Images of old men’s masculinity: Still a man? Sex Roles, 55(9–10), 633–648.
- Thompson, E. H., & Barnes Langendoerfer, K. (2016). Older men’s blueprint for “being a man”. Men and Masculinities, 19(2), 119–147.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
MacGregor, E. H., & Pitts, S. E. (2025) · International Journal of Community Music · doi:10.1386/ijcm_00119_1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pietilä, I., & Ojala, H.
- Affiliations
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Tampere University (FI)
- Corresponding author
- Pietilä, Ilkka
- Venue
- NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-10-02
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 316-329
- ISSN
- 0803-8740 (ISSN-L)
- 1502-394X
- OpenAlex
- W3207575665
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 0.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- Tampere University Institutional Repository (Tampere University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Sexuality, and Education
- Keywords
- inclusive masculinity, aging, masculinity, intersectionality, social inclusion, exclusion
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
