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Dominant discourses in much academic literature and society more widely tend to depict men as destructive, both towards themselves and others (Mac an Ghail, 2012). Men are commonly presented as valorising hegemonic constructions of masculinity that are in turn understood as negatively impacting on men’s wellbeing. For example, masculine values of self-sufficiency are considered to limit men’s capacity to ask for help (Addis and Mahalik, 2003), or to develop more satisfying relationships (Burn and Ward, 2005). However, masculinities are diverse and complex with significant variation found across a range of contexts (Connell, 1995). While a new wave of literature has begun to highlight the positive ways in which men may engage with hegemonic forms of masculinity, there is a lack of understanding of how these positive forms may be experienced in the context of ageing and the life course. Thus the current study seeks to further understandings in this area. This study focuses on men who self-selected as ‘ageing successfully’. 40 older men aged between 50-90, split between Australia and Britain, were recruited using a maximum variation sampling approach. In-depth narrative interviews were carried out and analysed using Thematic Analysis (TA), as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006; 2013). Analytical themes that emerged from men’s narratives related to their experiences of struggle, coping, identity construction, and hegemony in the context of ageing and the life course. Successfully navigating their relationship to control over the life course was particularly significant to men’s experiences of ageing well. Thus the findings suggest that older men show awareness around their own wellbeing and are indeed able and willing to find positive ways to act constructively, frequently underpinned by hegemonic forms of masculinity. In the current study men’s constructive behaviours were generally experienced through ‘legitimate’ opportunities, that is, in ways that did not tend to challenge dominant forms of masculinity. Additionally, a minority of men could experience positive wellbeing by resisting hegemony e.g. through expressing a greater identification with and preference for female rather than male friendship during youth. Finally, the cross cultural nature of the current research makes an original contribution by suggesting ways in which Australian and British men’s experiences of successful ageing and wellbeing may be influenced by class and cultural issues.

This thesis investigates discourses of age and gender as realised in language used by and about ageing women, with a particular focus on the inseparable and reciprocal relationship between the private voices of individual lived experience of age(ing), and public discourses of ageing generated by the beauty and media industries. Research data collected and analysed for this thesis has three components: spoken data from 19 face-to-face qualitative interviews (the private voices), and a range of anti-ageing skincare and selected media texts (two forms of public discourse). The primary focus for the research is mid-life women, (aged 42-56) transitioning between youth and old(er) age. Principal findings suggest that for them ageing is a complex, non-unitary process, influenced by powerful cultural discourses which idealise youthfulness and problematise ageing, delivering gendered aesthetic judgements which profoundly shape individual discourses and evaluations and can be tracked in specific language features. Appearance is the ‘dominant signifier of ageing’, its changes constantly monitored in daily “mirror moments” and negatively evaluated through comparative language of ‘pinnacle’ and ‘loss’ as pressure of the cultural lens on the personal gaze drives an obligation to conform to external expectations. Here, the intersection of ageing and gendered selves, mediated through the cultural/media mirror, is articulated through conflicting discourses of reluctant acceptance and anxious resistance, in a continuing process of self-evaluation made more complex by the external pressures of beauty discourses and ambivalent media. There are implications both for gender and linguistic studies, not least as age-related stereotypes are increasingly challenged by a growing community of baby-boomers transitioning through mid-life to old(er) age.