Bat wings, bunions, and turkey wattles: body transgressions and older women's strategic clothing choices

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 709-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE ◽  
MERIDITH GRIFFIN ◽  
KATHERINE MALIHA
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Clothing Choices ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACTThis paper examines older women's experiences and perceptions of clothing prescriptions for adults in later life. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71 to 93 years, we investigate the stringent, taken-for-granted social norms that older women identified with respect to appropriate fashion for the ageing female body. Specifically, the participants argued that older women should refrain from wearing bright colours and revealing or overly suggestive styles. Expressing a preference for classic or traditional styles, the women also reported that they used clothing strategically to mask or compensate for bodily transgressions that had occurred over time as a result of the physical realities of ageing, including weight gain, altered body shapes, wrinkles and sagging or ‘flabby’ arms and necks, referred to respectively as ‘bat wings’ and ‘turkey wattles’. In addition, the women contended that they consciously chose their clothing styles to compensate for age-related health issues and/or to present a competent, healthy self to others. Finally, the women talked about the ways in which their clothing choices were influenced by their changing lifestyles and constrained by a lack of desirable and affordable clothing options for the older female body. The findings are discussed in the light of Erving Goffman's concept of stigma and contemporary theorising about ageing, ageism, beauty work and the body.

Shades of grey: to dye or not to dye one's hair in later life

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE ◽  
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Later Life ◽  
White Hair ◽  
Doing Gender ◽  
Hair Dye ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Grey Hair ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Look ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACTThis article examines older women's perceptions of grey, white and coloured hair. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71–94 years (mean 79), we elucidate the women's attitudes towards and reasons for dyeing or not dyeing their hair. The majority of our participants disparaged the appearance of grey hair, which they equated with ugliness, dependence, poor health, social disengagement and cultural invisibility. The women were particularly averse to their own grey hair, and many suggested that other women's grey hair was acceptable, if not attractive. At the same time, half of the women liked the look of snowy white hair, which they associated with attractiveness in later life as well as with goodness and purity. While one-third of the women had begun to dye their hair in their youth so as to appear more fashionable, two-thirds continued to dye their hair in later life so as to mask their grey hair and their chronological age. The women suggested that they used hair dye to appear more youthful and to resist ageist stereotypes associated with older women. We discuss the findings in relation to previous research concerning older women's hair, the concept of doing gender, and theories pertaining to ageism.

scholarly journals MEN’S GENDER CAPITAL EXPERIENCES IN LATER LIFE

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Marta Gregorčič ◽  
Kaja Cizelj
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Older Men ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Work And Health ◽  
Gender Capital

Over the last decade there have been substantial advances in understanding the gendered dimensions of ageing. Prior studies have mostly dealt with understanding the lives of older women while largely neglecting or omitting older men. The focus on women facing disadvantages in socio-economic and marital status has shifted to men’s post-work and health issues in the last few decades, and only recently to masculinities and gender capital in later life. Contemporary discussions on cultural and gender capital bring relevant recognition and somehow unintentionally reveal that gender can matter to the same extent or even more in old age than in childhood or adulthood. This article analyses the results of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 98 men aged 60 or more and other data collected in Slovenia as part of the Old Guys Erasmus+ project. The project results are in line with recent studies on gender capital and masculinities, and justify why older men should be seen, discussed and examined as individual agents who practice, perform and produce gender in later life too. They also explain why hegemonic masculinity is only one aspect of gendered life experiences and that different masculine realities stand alongside each other and are as necessary for men in later life as femininities are for women, particularly in contemporary societies where both aged men and women are seen and represented as de-gendered, un-gendered or even genderless.

Beauty in Later Life: Older Women's Perceptions of Physical Attractiveness

2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 429-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Hurd Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Physical Attractiveness ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Fashion Models ◽  
Beauty Ideals ◽  
Female Bodies ◽  
Using Data

ABSTRACTUsing data from 96 hours of semi-structured interviews with women aged 61 to 92, this paper explores the meanings that older women attribute to beauty and aging. The women in my study tend to equate physical attractiveness with youthfulness and slimness. However, they reject the extremes of thinness embodied in today's fashion models and actresses. Even as they disparage obese individuals, the women argue that thin older women appear scrawny. The women express a preference for more rounded female bodies than current beauty standards allow and emphasize the importance of inner beauty. While some women view their wrinkles negatively, others suggest that their facial creases are badges of honour. I argue that older women do not simply internalize beauty ideals to the detriment of their sense of self. Rather, older women resist and challenge current ideals of feminine attractiveness and suggest alternative beauty ideals and definitions of personal desirability.

Becoming and being gendered through the body: older women, their mothers and body image

2007 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 701-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE ◽  
MERIDITH GRIFFIN
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Women's Body Image ◽  
Mother Daughter Relationship ◽  
The Life Course

ABSTRACTFollowing West and Zimmerman's (1987) theoretical understanding of how gender identities are created and maintained, this paper examines the ways in which older women learned from their mothers how ‘to do gender’ through their bodies and specifically their physical appearances. Extracts from semi-structured interviews with 44 women aged 50 to 70 years have been drawn upon to identify and discuss the ways in which women perceive, manage and present their bodies using socially-constructed ideals of beauty and femininity. More specifically, three ways that women learned ‘to do gender’ are examined: from their mothers' criticisms and compliments about their appearance at different stages of the lifecourse; from their mothers' attitudes towards their own bodies when young and in late adulthood; and from the interviewees' own later-life experiences and choices about ‘beauty work’. Interpretative feminism is employed to analyse how the women exercised agency while constructing body-image meanings in a social context that judges women on their ability to achieve and maintain the prevailing ideal of female beauty. The study extends previous research into the influence of the mother-daughter relationship on young women's body image. The findings suggest that mothers are important influences on their daughters' socialisation into body-image and beauty work, and exert, or are perceived to exert, accountability across the life-course.

She’s fast for her age! Older women and running culture

1969 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Bridget J. McGowan ◽  
Dr. Andre Smith
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Female Body ◽  
Younger Men ◽  
Moral Discourses ◽  
Depth Interviews

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, running was the exclusionary sport of younger men. Women, particularly older women, were discouraged from participating in competitive running up until the 1970s. In seeking to understand the reasons for this interdiction, this study employs Foucault’s concept of discourse to explore the ways in which medicalized notions about the female body have mitigated women’s involvement in running from the early 1900s until present day. The paper begins with a targeted literature review that identifies relevant biomedical and moral discourses. Findings are then presented from in-depth interviews with four elite women runners over the age of fifty. The analysis of these participants’ accounts of their running histories reveal that while women runners have gained new freedoms, a discriminatory discourse remains, one that sexualizes and commodifies the female athletic body.

Mental Health in Later Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisoun Milne
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older People ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Life Course Studies

Focusing on mental health rather than mental illness, this book adopts a life course approach to understanding mental health and wellbeing in later life. Drawing together material from the fields of sociology, psychology, critical social gerontology, the mental health field, and life course studies, it analyses the meaning and determinants of mental health amongst older populations and offers a critical review of existing discourse. The book explores the intersecting influences of lifecourse experiences, social and structural inequalities, socio-political context, history, gender and age-related factors and demands an approach to prevention and resolution that appreciates the embedded, complex and multi-faceted nature of threats to mental health and ways to protect it. It foregrounds engagement with the perspectives and lived experiences of older people, including people living with dementia, and makes the case for a paradigmatic shift in conceptualising, exploring and researching mental health issues and supporting older people with mental health problems. The book is essential reading for policy makers, health and social care professionals and students, third sector agencies, researchers and all of those concerned to more effectively and collaboratively address mental health issues in later life.

Meeting the mental health needs of older women: taking social inequality into account

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-723 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALISOUN MILNE ◽  
JENNIE WILLIAMS
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Service System ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Effective Care

Whilst there is increasing acceptance that social inequalities have implications for mental health, there is minimal acknowledgement of their effects on the development and treatment of mental ill health in older people. This paper focuses on older women, as they are the majority sufferers of mental illness in later life, and are particularly vulnerable to the cumulative effects of lifelong and age-related inequalities. The authors, who draw upon literature from the fields of gerontology and mental health, argue that for effective care to be developed, older women's mental ill health needs to be seen within the context of their past and present experience of social inequalities. Evidence particularly relates to socio-economic disadvantages as well as to the consequences of discrimination. It is argued that psychological vulnerability is further compounded by the gendered effects of social policy, and by a care system which constructs mental health needs as unrelated to oppression, and dislocated from their economic, social and historical roots. Finally, the authors outline the key components of a care and service system which takes account of social inequalities, and which accords centrality to the experiences, views and opinions of older women with mental health problems.

‘I know it exists … but I haven't experienced it personally’: older Canadian men's perceptions of ageism as a distant social problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1757-1773 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE ◽  
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Canadian Society ◽  
Physical Decline ◽  
Frail Elders ◽  
Active Lifestyles ◽  
Depth Interviews

ABSTRACTThis paper examines how older men perceive, experience and internalise ageist prejudice in the context of their everyday lives. We draw on in-depth interviews with 29 community-dwelling Canadian men aged 65–89. Although one-third of our participants were unfamiliar with the term ageism, the majority felt that age-based discrimination was prevalent in Canadian society. Indicating that they themselves had not been personally subjected to ageism, the men considered age-based discrimination to be a socially distant problem. The men explained their perceived immunity to ageism in terms of their youthful attitudes and active lifestyles. The men identified three groups who they considered to be particularly vulnerable to age-based discrimination, namely women, older workers and frail elders residing in institutions. At the same time, the majority of our participants had internalised a variety of ageist and sexist stereotypes. Indeed, the men assumed that later life was inevitably a time of physical decline and dependence, and accepted as fact that older adults were grumpy, poor drivers, unable to learn new technologies and, in the case of older women, sexually unattractive. In this way, a tension existed between the men's assertion that ageism did not affect their lives and their own internalisation of ageist stereotypes. We consider our findings in relation to the theorising about ageism and hegemonic masculinity.

scholarly journals Comprehensive Profiling of Plasma Exosomes Using Data-Independent Acquisitions – New Tools for Aging Cohort Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandip K. Patel ◽  
Roland Bruderer ◽  
Nathan Basisty ◽  
Joanna Bons ◽  
Pierre-Yves Desprez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reversed Phase ◽  
The Body ◽  
Size Exclusion ◽  
Biomarkers Of Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Complex Biological Process ◽  
High Throughput Method ◽  
Aging Study ◽  
Exclusion Chromatography ◽  
Using Data

AbstractAging is a complex biological process associated with progressive loss of physiological function and susceptibility to several diseases, such as cancer and neurodegeneration. Exosomes are involved in many cellular signaling pathways, and their cargo may serve as promising disease or aging biomarkers. These membrane-bound extracellular vesicles facilitate the transport of intracellular contents to proximal and distal cells in the body. Here, we investigated two omics approaches for exosome analysis. To overcome the challenges of plasma exosome contamination with abundant soluble plasma proteins, we developed a high-throughput method to isolate highly purified exosomes from human plasma by sequential size-exclusion chromatography and ultrafiltration. First, we used data-dependent acquisitions from offline high-pH reversed-phase fractions of exosome lysate to generate a deep spectral library comprising ∼2,300 exosome proteins. Second, in a pilot aging study, we used comprehensive data-independent acquisitions to compare plasma exosomes from young (20–26 yrs) and old (60–66 yrs) individuals. We quantified 1,318 exosome proteins, and levels of 144 proteins were significantly different in young and old plasma groups (Q<0.05 and >1.5-fold change). We also analyzed exosome miRNA cargo and detected 331 miRNAs. Levels of several were significantly different in young and old individuals. In addition, 88 and 17 miRNAs were unique to old and young individuals, respectively. Plasma exosome biomarkers have great potential for translational studies investigating biomarkers of aging and age-related diseases and to monitor therapeutic aging interventions.

Sex After Fifty: The ‘Invisible’ Female Ageing Body in Spanish Women-authored Cinema

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Zecchi
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Female Character ◽  
Women Filmmakers ◽  
Sexually Active ◽  
Mature Women ◽  
Spanish Women ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter discusses the figure of the ageing female character as a sexual being in a wide selection of films directed by Spanish women filmmakers including Cecilia Bartolomé, Isabel Coixet, Pilar Miró, Josefina Molina or Paula Ortíz among others. The author usefully identifies a number of sometimes opposing strategies that serve to organise the films into three distinctive categories. Some films actively spectacularise the body of the mature and sexually active woman, others do the opposite and use the portrayal of the unglamorous older female body as a means to draw attention to and denounce the expectations set by the youth-obsessed mainstream film and media that displace mature women making them invisible. Finally, the chapter identifies a third group of films with ‘affirmative ageing’ discourses. This latter group of films actively encourage the spectator’s sensual engagement with the erotic experiences of the older women on the screen.

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