Abstract
There remains a salient need to conceptualize lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) aging as an area of study. Although the limited body of theoretical literature in this field has delineated systemic silence or invisibility as a prominent feature of marginalization among LGBTQ elders, this model does not appear to account for mechanisms of surveillance and control that often regulate sexuality and gender identity in old age. This paper represents a preliminary attempt at developing a framework of LGBTQ aging that addresses social processes in which queerness and gender variance are monitored and limited in later stages of the life course. The analysis is guided by the Foucauldian notion of neoliberal governmentality, which enables consideration of bodies of discourse and technologies of power that together drive these systemic phenomena in contemporary political and economic contexts. The paper concludes with implications of this analysis on theory and empirical inquiry in the field of LGBTQ aging.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abatiell, P., & Adams, M. (2011). LGBT aging: a question of identity. The Gerontologist, 51, 880–884.
Addis, S., Davies, M., Greene, G., MacBride-Stewart, S., & Shepherd, M. (2009). The health, social care and housing needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older people: a review of the literature. Health & Social Care in the Community, 17, 647–658.
Bjornsdottir, K. (2002). From the state to the family: reconfiguring the responsibility for long-term care nursing at home. Nursing Inquiry, 9, 3–11.
Brotman, S., Ferrer, I., Sussman, T., Ryan, B., & Richard, B. (2015). Access and equity in the design and delivery of health and social care to LGBTQ older adults: a Canadian perspective. In N. A. Orel & C. A. Fruhauf (Eds.), The lives of LGBT older adults (pp. 111–140). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Brotman, S., Ryan, B., & Cormier, R. (2003). The health and social service needs of gay and lesbian elders and their families in Canada. Gerontologist, 43, 192–202.
Brown, M. T. (2009). LGBT aging and rhetorical silence. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 6, 65–78.
Brown, M., & Knopp, L. (2014). The birth of the (gay) clinic. Health &Place, 28, 99–108.
Cahill, S. (2007). The coming GLBT senior boom. Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, 13, 19–21.
Cronin, A., & King, A. (2010). Power, inequality and identification: exploring diversity and intersectionality amongst older LGB adults. Sociology, 44, 876–892.
Eliason, M. J., Dibble, S., & DeJoseph, J. (2010). Nursing’s silence on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues: the need for emancipatory efforts. Advances in Nursing Science, 33, 206–218.
Finkenauer, S., Sheratt, J., Marlow, J., & Bodey, A. (2012). When injustice gets old: a systematic review of trans aging. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 24, 311–330.
Fishman, J. R., Binstock, R. H., & Lambrix, M. A. (2008). Anti-aging science: the emergence, maintenance, and enhancement of a discipline. Journal of Aging Studies, 22, 295–303.
Foucault, M. (2008). The birth of biopolitics: lectures at the Collège de France 1978–79. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Foucault, M. (2007). Security, territory, population: lectures at the Collège de France 1975–1976. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Foucault, M. (2000). The subject and power. In J. Faubion (Ed.), Power (pp. 326–348). New York: New Press.
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality, volume 1: an introduction. New York: Random House.
Fredriksen-Goldsen, K. I., & Muraco, A. (2010). Aging and sexual orientation: a 25 year review of the literature. Research on Aging, 32, 372–413.
Fry, C. L. (2002). The life course as a cultural construct. In R. A. Settersten (Ed.), Invitation to the life course (pp. 269–294). Amityville: Baywood.
Gane, N. (2012). The governmentalities of neoliberalism: panopticism, post-panopticism and beyond. The Sociological Review, 60, 611–634.
Halberstam, J. (2005). In a queer time and place: transgender bodies, subcultural lives. New York: New York University Press.
Hughes, M. (2008). Imagined futures and communities: older lesbian and gay people’s narratives on health and aged care. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 20, 167–186.
Kerr, D. (1999). Beheading the king and enthroning the market: a critique of foucauldian governmentality. Science and Society, 63, 173–202.
Kimmel, D. C. (2015). Theories of aging applied to LGBT older adults and their families. In N. A. Orel & C. A. Fruhauf (Eds.), The lives of LGBT older adults (pp. 73–90). Washington: American Psychological Association.
King, A. (2014). Queer categories: queer(y)ing the identification of ‘older lesbian, gay, and/or bisexual (LGB) adults’ and its implications for organizational research, policy and practice. Gender, Work and Organization. doi:10.1111/gwao.12065.
Knauer, N. J. (2011). Gay and lesbian elders: history, law, and identity politics in the United States. Burlington: Ashgate.
Lupton, D. (2003). Medicine as culture: illness, disease and the body in Western societies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Pickard, S. (2014). Frail bodies: geriatric medicine and the constitution of the fourth age. Sociology of Health & Illness, 36, 549–563.
Pickard, S. (2010). The ‘good carer’: moral practices in late modernity.”. Sociology, 44, 471–487.
Purkis, M. E. (2001). Managing home nursing care: visibility, accountability and exclusion. Nursing Inquiry, 8, 141–150.
Rose, N. (1996). The death of the social? Re-figuring the territory of government. Economy and Society, 25, 327–356.
Rose, N., & Miller, P. (2010). Political power beyond the state: problematics of government. The British Journal of Sociology, 61, 271–303.
Rose, S. M., & Hospital, M. M. (2015). Lesbians over 60: newer every day. In V. Muhlbauer, J. C. Chrisier, & F. L. Denmark (Eds.), Women and aging: an international, intersectional power perspective (pp. 117–146). New York: Springer.
Sanger, T. (2008). Trans governmentality: the production and regulation of gendered subjectivities. Journal of Gender Studies, 17, 41–53.
Savransky, M. (2014). Of recalcitrant subjects. Culture, Theory and Critique, 55, 96–113.
Stein, G. L., Beckerman, N. L., & Sherman, P. A. (2010). Lesbian and gay elders and long-term care: identifying the unique psychosocial perspectives and challenges. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 53, 421–435.
Walters, W. (2012). Foucault, power and governmentality. In W. Walters (Ed.), Governmentality: critical encounters (pp. 9–43). New York: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kia, H. Hypervisibility: Toward a Conceptualization of LGBTQ Aging. Sex Res Soc Policy 13, 46–57 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0194-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0194-9