The social “meaning” of celibacy

The article examines the emotional lives of men over 45 years of age from the urban working classes. It highlights the ways in which living alone in the long-term is institutionalised as a component of the lifestyle of this social milieu. By analysing these lives, we seek to highlight the interest of these men in adopting such a role, the conditions of entry and the anticipated conditions of exit from a life that does not involve living as a couple. It will also consider its impact on the perception and appropriation that these men have of their situation. This approach questions “traditional” conjugality as an object of reflexivity in its own right for the men being analysed. Three forms of popular, long-term male celibacy, all of which escape a unilateral manifestation of stigma or a feeling of failure or resentment, are described on this basis: celibacy by expectation, celibacy by default and celibacy by establishment.