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.

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.

Older women's perceptions of ideal body weights: the tensions between health and appearance motivations for weight loss

2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 751-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURA HURD CLARKE
Keyword(s):  
Weight Loss ◽  
Weight Gain ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Body Weights ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Ideal Body ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Health Risks And Benefits

This paper explores older women's evaluations of their weight as well as the perceived merits and detriments of weight gain and weight loss in later life. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 22 community-dwelling women aged 61 to 92 years, I examine the meanings that the women attribute to dieting, desired body weights and obesity. The women frequently offer unsolicited accounts for why they have gained or lost weight over time, and disclose their perceptions of and reasons for needing to alter their current body weights. I probe the tensions between weight loss for health concerns versus appearance goals. The women express dissatisfaction with their weight gain in terms of their physical appearance. However, they also tend to describe the need to lose weight in terms of health risks and benefits rather than in terms of approximating the beauty ideal or achieving a desired body size and shape. Health tends to be described as a valid justification for being concerned with one's weight, while an appearance orientation is deemed to be indicative of vanity. Many of the women suggest that while the health benefits of weight loss are often the stated reason for losing weight, the perceived appearance dividends are the key motivation behind altering one's body weight in later life.

Growing Older

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 707-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Terrill ◽  
Judith Gullifer
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structured Interviews

This study explored experiences of eight rural, Anglo-Australian women aged between 65 and 75 using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed three prominent themes: (a) the free and busy me highlights the increased freedom in later life enabling choices regarding activities the women would like to engage in; (b) the secret is being positive and pragmatic emphasizes the importance of adopting a pragmatic acceptance of growing older; and (c) narratives of growth and stagnation highlights the pursuit of growth among older women in order to enhance the current self. Findings emphasize the construction of later life as one of liberation, resilience and growth.

scholarly journals On the Hunt for Noble Savages: Romance Tourism and Ageing Femininities

Societies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Ieva Stončikaitė
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Casual Sex ◽  
Sexual Relationships ◽  
Information Campaigns ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Romance Tourism

Casual sexual encounters are closely wedded to leisure travel, and have received a lot of attention in both theoretical and empirical work. However, the relationship between romance tourism and female ageing remains largely under-researched. This article offers critical insights into the interplay of the successful ageing and sexual relationships abroad of older women travellers. It shows that romance tourism has both positive and negative implications for women’s physical and psychological health and wellbeing. Although exotic escapes help reconnect women with their youthful selves, enhancing a sense of self-confidence and challenging the narrative of decline, casual sex may also generate conflicting feelings once the travel romance is over. This article also encourages the rethinking of the complexities of ageing femininities, sexual activity and health risk in ‘silver’ romance tourism today. Additionally, it argues that the sexual health guidelines and information campaigns should adopt a more multifaceted approach to sexual expressions, and encourage alternative views towards sex and sexuality in later life, in order to not create a rather oppressive ideology among older women.

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.

Reconsidering Change and Continuity in Later Life: Toward an Innovation Theory of Successful Aging

2007 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galit Nimrod ◽  
Douglas A. Kleiber
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Aging Process ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Purposive Sample

This article examines the patterns and meanings of innovation in the activities of a group of retirees with an eye toward understanding the place and value of innovation in the aging process. Starting with a consideration of continuity theory, as a perspective that simply describes typical patterns of activity, and activity theory that prescribes expansion of activities as a key to well-being, this article highlights the characteristics, meanings and perceived benefits of a wide variety of innovative activities. The study utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 20 male and female retirees involved in a “Learning and Retirement” program. Innovations that both preserve a sense of self (internal continuity) as well as those that allow one to strike out in entirely new direction are described, and, using a process of constant comparison, their motivational dynamics are explored. Given previous arguments that activity can be indiscriminate and disintegrative in some circumstances, we nevertheless suggest that innovation can be growth producing and liberating, even in later life, while at the same time generally protecting a sense of internal continuity.

“Care from the heart”: older minoritised women's perceptions of dignity in care

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roiyah Saltus ◽  
Christalla Pithara
Keyword(s):  
Life Course ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Family Involvement ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Social Markers

Purpose – Drawing findings from a large mixed-method study on perceptions of dignity, care expectations, and support in relation to older women from Black and minority-ethnic backgrounds, the purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelationships between life course events and the multiple roles adopted by women at different points in time that have shaped their perceptions of care and their care expectations in old age. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 32 semi-structured interviews were undertaken, allowing for the collection of data on the participants’ understanding of growing old, and the meaning and attributes of care and what care with dignity “looked and felt like”. The theoretical framework is guided by a life-course approach and grounded within an intersectionality perspective. The majority of the participants were migrants. Findings – Social markers such as ethnicity and cultural identity were found to influence the participants’ understanding and expectations of care with factors such as gender identity and integration in the local community also of importance. How women felt they were perceived and “recognised” by others in their everyday lives with particular focus at the time of old age with the increased potential of loss of dignity due to declining capabilities, raised the importance of the family involvement in care provision, and perceived differences in the attributes of paid and non-paid care. The notion of “care from the heart” emerged as a key attribute of care with dignity. Care with dignity was understood as a purposeful activity, undertaken with intent to show respect and to acknowledge the participants’ sense of worth and value. Practical implications – The implications of this study are relevant in the current debate taking place at the EU level about the lived experiences of ageing migrant groups and care expectations. Originality/value – The study highlights the importance of the social nature of dignity, how wider societal structures can impact and shape how care is understood for older women of migrant and minoritised backgrounds, and the need to explore migration and care across the life course.

scholarly journals Older women's reduced contact with food in the Changes Around Food Experience (CAFE) study: choices, adaptations and dynamism

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 645-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHLEEN LANE ◽  
FIONA POLAND ◽  
SHEILA FLEMING ◽  
NIGEL LAMBERT ◽  
HILARY MACDONALD ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Formal Services ◽  
Food Experience ◽  
One Year ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
Dynamic Adaptability ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTMany older women reduce the amount of cooking and food preparation they do in later life. While cooking may be seen as traditionally associated with women's family roles, little is known about the impact of such reduced engagement with food on their lives. This paper presents the findings from a one-year qualitative study (Changes Around Food Experience, CAFE) of the impact of reduced contact with preparing and cooking meals from scratch for 40 women, aged 65–95 years, living in Norfolk, United Kingdom. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observations. Women's reasons for reducing food-related activities included changes in health, loss of a partner or a caring role, and new patterns of socialising. Disengagement from cooking and shopping was not found to entail predominantly negative feelings, passive acceptance or searching for forms of support to re-enable more cooking from scratch. Accounts evidenced the dynamic adaptability of older women in actively managing changed relationships with food. In exploring new meal options, older women were not simply disengaging from their environments. CAFE findings linked women's engagement with their environments to how they were using formal services and, even more, to the value they placed on social engagement and being out and about. Through the connections they fostered with friends, family and community, older women actively enabled their continued involvement in their social, public and family spheres. Reduced contact with preparing and cooking meals from scratch, therefore, did not induce or imply passivity or debility in the CAFE cohort. By contrast, it involved their exploring new means of retaining what was important to them about food in the context of their lived situation and social connections with friends, family, the community and public spheres.

scholarly journals ‘Why would I want sex now?’ A qualitative study on older women's affirmative narratives on sexual inactivity in later life

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Gabriela Gore-Gorszewska
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older Women ◽  
Sexual Functioning ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Sexual Scripts ◽  
Sexual Agency ◽  
Sexually Active ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Right

Abstract The existing research tries to understand the reasons for discontinuing sex in later life with the assumption that people want to be sexual. Although the growing body of literature informs that sex remains an integral part of older adults’ lives, a substantial number of older adults declare not being sexually active. This study aimed at exploring motives for deliberately choosing sexual inactivity among older women. Semi-structured interviews with 16 Polish women (aged 65–82) were thematically analysed in relation to the sexual scripts theory and the participants’ specific socio-cultural background. Three main themes regarding the reasons for cessation of their sex life were identified: ‘I am glad that sex does not concern me anymore’, ‘I am satisfied with my memories’ and ‘The right one’ or no one. The results indicate that some women give up sex for good, with no regrets or feeling of a loss; for others, it may be a temporary decision, its duration dependent on meeting the right partner. Developing sexual agency may encourage discontinuing their sex life – a choice perceived as optimal and liberating. Personal factors and the memories of marital relationships seem to shape older women's (a)sexual expectations. Acknowledging these nuances may contribute to a better understanding of older women's sexual functioning; implications for consideration in further research and practice are also discussed.

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.

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