Abstract
ABSTRACT The Danish TV show Real Men aims to inform viewers about popular health science, illness and health-related subjects whilst entertaining them with insights into the lives of people in pursuit of “health and happiness”—in this case, a handful of middle-aged men from rural Denmark. In this article, we investigate Real Men as an example of the ways in which the middle-aged male-sexed body is increasingly becoming medicalized. Drawing on assemblage theory, and feminist theories of class, ability, and fat, this article explores how notions of the middle-aged male-sexed body occur, assemble and emerge within a mediated framework of health and masculinity with a focus on affect and materiality. We introduce the term vital masculinity and suggest it as an analytical tool in order to understand how new/old notions of masculinity emerge through representations of bodily capacity and debility in a popular mainstream TV show.
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