Bortom ståndet, närmare beröringen

Möten mellan Irigaray och den åldrande manskroppen

Abstract

This article explores touch and the significance of touch to feminist theorizing and studies of men and masculinities. By combining narratives on touch by old men born between 1922-1942 and Luce Irigaray’s seminal feminist text ”When our lips speak together” the aim of the article is to explore possibilities of rethinking male bodies beyond the phallic body. The article draws on empirical material from a study on sexuality, masculinity and old age with 22 heterosexual Swedish men between the ages of 67 and 87. The discussion is based in particular on the narratives of three men who have written so called body diaries on their everyday life. Recent discourses on later life sexuality are increasingly focused on the possibilities for old men to regain their erection and continue with penile-vaginal intercourse. However, the men in this study recurrently underlined the significance of touch to experiences of later life sexuality. Inspired by Irigaray and her emphasis on sexual difference, the article discusses the differences and specificities of ageing bodies and how the ageing of bodies may shape men’s bodies as bodies of touch. Touch may as such function to challenge male phallic bodily morphologies. The unexpected meeting between old men’s ageing bodies and Irigaray may suggest that feminist theory has a lot to gain from engaging in further discussion on difference and the specificities of ageing bodies.