I was excited when I received this month’s issue of The Advocate in the male. On the cover it declared “Silverfoxes: The rise of the mature man”. It also featured a picture of Anderson Cooper with little text blurbs highlighting the attractive features of older men such as gray hair, soulful eyes, and laugh lines. I normally read The Advocate from cover to cover, but this month I couldn’t resist flipping directly to the feature article “The Age of the Silverfox” by Sean Kennedy.
I naively believed that for once, when it comes to sex appeal, The Advocate would briefly set aside the cult of youth. That they might truly examine the appeal of mature men. Unfortunately that is not what Mr. Kennedy did, and I came away from the article with a very mixed impression.
The Good:
1. The article encourages men with gray hair to avoid the temptation to dye it. It makes the case that natural gray hair can express confidence and be sexy. Oh, they are so right.
2. The article also makes a unique observation about the expression of masculinity. That gray hair offers an alternative to bear culture or ultra gym bodies in the race to express manliness. (Of course we all know women gray too, but it is more acceptable for men, got to love double standards.)
3. By focusing on what some might call “prematurely gray” men the article raises awareness about failing follicles. I hope it has helped younger men stop obsessing over the possibility of going gray.
The Bad:
1. The article really only focuses on gray haired men in the under 45 crowd. Despite its pleas that getting gray hair doesn’t mean you’re past it, the article still manages to marginalize older gay men. We are treated to copy about being silver and still having toned and tanned bodies and photos of baby faced men with gray hair. However older men are excluded from the silverfox category and dismissed as the “daddy type”. (I don’t want to get into exactly what that means, but the connotations aren’t always good.)
2. Gray hair is equated to maturity and sophistication, but the article doesn’t feature any older men from whom that association presumably comes. It seems to me that Mr. Kennedy is presenting gray hair as just another fashion option for trendy young men. The article only recognizes the value of gray hair on the heads of the young. On the other hand I must give the men that were featured credit for being self confident and for bucking the status quo.
Ultimately, I had hoped the article would have explored nuances in attraction in the gay community. Perhaps I should have known better when Anderson Cooper was the cover model rather than some older man, but to my defense the cover copy was a bit misleading. My hopes were raised and then dashed by an article that, in some ways, supports stereotypes and avoids addressing the truly complicated nature of male/male attraction.
Have you read this month’s issue of The Advocate? What did you think of the article “The Age of the Silverfox”? Did anything else from this issue jump out at you?
July 10, 2008
In The Media: The Advocate’s Silverfoxes
Posted by gaytodecember under Commentary, Questions | Tags: anderson cooper, appearance, attraction, daddy, gay, glbt, gray hair, homosexual, LGBT, masculinity, mature men, older men, prematurely gray, presentation, sean kennedy, sex appeal, silverfox, The Advocate |Leave a Comment
I was excited when I received this month’s issue of The Advocate in the male. On the cover it declared “Silverfoxes: The rise of the mature man”. It also featured a picture of Anderson Cooper with little text blurbs highlighting the attractive features of older men such as gray hair, soulful eyes, and laugh lines. I normally read The Advocate from cover to cover, but this month I couldn’t resist flipping directly to the feature article “The Age of the Silverfox” by Sean Kennedy.
I naively believed that for once, when it comes to sex appeal, The Advocate would briefly set aside the cult of youth. That they might truly examine the appeal of mature men. Unfortunately that is not what Mr. Kennedy did, and I came away from the article with a very mixed impression.
The Good:
1. The article encourages men with gray hair to avoid the temptation to dye it. It makes the case that natural gray hair can express confidence and be sexy. Oh, they are so right.
2. The article also makes a unique observation about the expression of masculinity. That gray hair offers an alternative to bear culture or ultra gym bodies in the race to express manliness. (Of course we all know women gray too, but it is more acceptable for men, got to love double standards.)
3. By focusing on what some might call “prematurely gray” men the article raises awareness about failing follicles. I hope it has helped younger men stop obsessing over the possibility of going gray.
The Bad:
1. The article really only focuses on gray haired men in the under 45 crowd. Despite its pleas that getting gray hair doesn’t mean you’re past it, the article still manages to marginalize older gay men. We are treated to copy about being silver and still having toned and tanned bodies and photos of baby faced men with gray hair. However older men are excluded from the silverfox category and dismissed as the “daddy type”. (I don’t want to get into exactly what that means, but the connotations aren’t always good.)
2. Gray hair is equated to maturity and sophistication, but the article doesn’t feature any older men from whom that association presumably comes. It seems to me that Mr. Kennedy is presenting gray hair as just another fashion option for trendy young men. The article only recognizes the value of gray hair on the heads of the young. On the other hand I must give the men that were featured credit for being self confident and for bucking the status quo.
Ultimately, I had hoped the article would have explored nuances in attraction in the gay community. Perhaps I should have known better when Anderson Cooper was the cover model rather than some older man, but to my defense the cover copy was a bit misleading. My hopes were raised and then dashed by an article that, in some ways, supports stereotypes and avoids addressing the truly complicated nature of male/male attraction.
Have you read this month’s issue of The Advocate? What did you think of the article “The Age of the Silverfox”? Did anything else from this issue jump out at you?