"We're Not in Oz Anymore": Shifting Generational Perspectives and Tensions of Gay Community, Identity, and Future

This essay analyzes the writings from a gay male intergenerational project, wherein the process of generating creative prose, poetry, and fiction are used to explore differing understandings of age, aging, and future across gay male cohorts in Chicago. The project suggests one's age strongly in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of homosexuality 2014-11, Vol.61 (11), p.1503-1528
Main Author: Goltz, Dustin Bradley
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aging
Aging - psychology
Chicago, Illinois
Community
Conceptualization
Forecasting
gay aging
gay community
gay identity
Gays & lesbians
Gender Identity
generativity
Homosexuality
Homosexuality, Male - psychology
Humans
Identity
Intergenerational Relations
LGBTQ
Literature, Modern
Male
Males
Medicine in Literature
Middle Aged
Myth
Myths
Power
Power Structure
Residence Characteristics
Social Change
Social Identification
Social identity
Social Values
Writing
Young Adult
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Description
Summary:This essay analyzes the writings from a gay male intergenerational project, wherein the process of generating creative prose, poetry, and fiction are used to explore differing understandings of age, aging, and future across gay male cohorts in Chicago. The project suggests one's age strongly informs one's perception of power dynamics and one's perceived access to power. Specifically, youthist logics and lingering cultural myths surrounding the aging gay male shape and constrain intergenerational relations. Furthermore, the study marks and theorizes an emergent generational divide in the conceptualization and articulation of "gay identity" as well as how this identity is understood in relation to "the gay community." The essay concludes by examining the implications and potential of this research to expand models and logics for meaningful gay male intergenerational exchange, or a queered form of generativity.
ISSN:0091-8369
1540-3602
DOI:10.1080/00918369.2014.944042