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Midlife Pop Masculinities in the Here and Now

2012; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4000/inmedia.444

2259-4728

Chris Tinker,

Education, Sociology, Communication Studies

This article shows how newspaper coverage of British musicians associated with the Here and Now 1980s nostalgia shows, particularly Boy George, Jason Donovan and Rick Astley, serves effectively to promote a range of approaches to midlife masculinities. While traditional masculinities are maintained in terms of rationality and developed through discourses of midlife maturity, they are also challenged through the importance attached to emotion and sensitivity, a reduction in work-related competitiveness and the expression of a more detached, light-hearted, even flippant, attitude. Certain 'new' masculinities, which gained currency during the 1980s, are also in evidence. Indeed, there is a particular emphasis on fathers-as-nurturers and on equality in heterosexual partnerships.