“The 70s Are the New 50s. Nothing Is, However, for Free” – The Affective Biopolitics of Andropause and Testosterone on Danish Websites

Abstract

ABSTRACT Andropause, the notion that men’s aging is affected by a declining testosterone production, has until recently been a somewhat unknown phenomenon in the Danish context. However, as a growing number of Danish websites are disseminating information about ‘the male climacteric’, a new hormone centered health discourse about the male body is emerging. In this article, we analyze a corpus of 50 Danish websites consisting of both online media articles and websites marketing products for ‘andropausal’ men. We show how men’s health and performances of masculinity in mid- and later life is entangled in biomedical discourses of risk and self-surveillance, as well as (biopolitical) affects centering aging men’s sexual capacities. We base our analysis in new materialist thinking which outlines affect, biopolitics and complexity as entry points to embodied dimensions of masculinity. We argue that the growing attention to andropause promote new norms for aging in which the aging body is designated as unhealthy and the individual is required to remain vital and capable throughout life. Finally, drawing on Steve Garlick, we show how online available testosterone home-testing kits can be read as illustrative of the theory of masculinity as a technology of embodiment which rests upon the control over nature.