ABSTRACT
The rural men O’Lynn interviewed in his study of caregivers in two northwestern states equally encourage a need to attend to the nuances across rural masculinities. A take away from debunking a simplistic view of any rural culture: Researchers, service providers, and policymakers need a much greater sensitivity to nuances of local rural masculinities when it comes to understanding the lives and needs of the men and their aging experiences. Rural masculinities are locally constructed and contested. The masculinities men embody and perform arise from how race, class, age, generation, and geographies intersect. Rural men’s negotiation of gender practices as they age is likely to retain much of their earlier preferences and practices—e.g., self-reliance and dependence on wives. Aging men’s narratives will reveal an intersectional life of what it meant to be a rural man worthy of respect.
