‘Do it Forever’: Discursive representations of older adults and sexualities in vacation marketing

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-276
Author(s):  
Bodil Stilling Blichfeldt ◽  
Karina M Smed
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Counter Narratives ◽  
Relevant Case ◽  
Promotional Video ◽  
Discursive Representations

In advertising, sex has been ascribed a major role, but mostly in a one-dimensional, uniform, and ageist manner framing sexuality as the privilege of younger people. This has traditionally strengthened stereotyping discourses of older adults as ‘asexual’. However, in recent years, counter narratives emphasizing sex as an integral part of active, healthy, and successful aging have gained momentum. Using the promotional video ‘Do it Forever’ as a relevant case, this article analyzes representations of older adults’ sexualities in vacation marketing and points to how advertising is not ‘innocent’, but discursively positions older adults’ sexualities within an antiaging culture which positions older adults as ‘sexy olders’ in sharp opposition to the discourse of ‘asexsual old age’, potentially leaving older adults with little room to construct (a)sexual identities in-between the two strong and oppositional discourses.

scholarly journals UNIMAGINED FUTURES: THE PARADOX OF FAMILISM AND ELDERCARE AMONG AGING LATINOS IN THE CHICAGOLAND AREA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S715-S715
Author(s):  
Melissa Howe ◽  
Alexis Howard ◽  
Wendy Hsieh ◽  
Lissette M Piedra
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Nativity Status ◽  
North Americans ◽  
Physical Independence ◽  
Latino Older Adults

Abstract Scholars of gerontology highlight the ways aging varies cross-culturally. Whereas North Americans tend to describe “successful aging” as the maintenance of social and physical independence, Latin Americans tend to view aging as a natural process of social transition. In this study, we conducted a content analysis of nine focus groups (N =101) and 20 interviews with Latino older adults in the Chicagoland area to examine how they characterize successful aging and view the health declines that accompany aging. We found that Latino older adults often used rhetoric associated with “successful aging,” which tended to emphasize the maintenance of independence and physical functioning. Even immigrant respondents employed this language, suggesting that descriptions of “good old age,” may be more culturally transferable than previously thought. At the same time, the cultural values of respeto and familismo also emerged. Regardless of the participant’s nativity status, centrality of family and the importance of respect represented constant sources of support. Still, adherence to these values came with considerable drawbacks for those intensely focused on self-sacrifice for the sake of their families. Taken together, “successful old age” was defined by the participants as one in which a person maintains physical independence in the context of an interdependent, kin-focused, social life. This paradoxical combination of valuing independence and familial interdependence produced a number of benefits and challenges for Latino adults as they transitioned into to older adulthood.

scholarly journals SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN OLD AGE: IMPACTS OF AGING UNDER INTERPERSONAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S785-S785
Author(s):  
Minjie Lu ◽  
Xin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Interpersonal Interaction ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

Abstract To promote successful aging, social engagement has been encouraged among older adults. Yet, thus far, research on older adults’ social engagement have been preoccupied with the close and intimate relationships between older adults and their families, friends, or caretakers. Little attention is being paid to how older adults may engage in peripheral social networks, civic activities, or public affairs. This symposium features four presentations that investigate older adults’ social engagement in these contexts. First, with the focus on interpersonal interaction with strangers, Yi Lu and colleagues examine the age differences in trustworthiness perception of unfamiliar faces. The second and third presentations focus on moral and political contexts. Minjie Lu will present the divergent impacts of age on the cognitive evaluations and emotional responses towards moral issues. Wong and Fung analyze older adults’ engagements in political discussions and actions and the factors that may promote these engagements. Last but not least, Nicole Fung and colleagues will present findings that generativity among older adults can promote sense of meanings and death acceptance, demonstrating the beneficial effects of social engagement in old age. Finally, Zhang will provide closing discussions about the implications and future directions of these presentations.

scholarly journals THE COURAGE TO EMBRACE OLD AGE

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S408-S408
Author(s):  
Jim Vandenbosch
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Cultural Perception ◽  
Popular Films ◽  
The Common

Abstract Most popular films and television programs reflect, and thereby reinforce, the common and entrenched cultural perception of aging as the “enemy” of vital living. Aging used to be kept at bay in popular films and TV programs through a stereotyping that allowed ridicule and avoidance. Today, such overt negative portrayals have begun to fall out of favor but are being replaced by a subtler form of ageism—that of “super-aging” where older adults who are seen as successfully holding onto their youthful ways are celebrated and held up as models of “successful” aging. This presentation will give an overview of how most popular films and television programs frame the experience of older adulthood, and will illustrate this with clips from such films. Then, in contrast, clips will be presented from films that present a more holistic and balanced view of elderhood.

How Do Older Adults Define Successful Aging? A Scoping Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbra Teater ◽  
Jill M. Chonody
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Aging Process ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Good Death ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
And Behaviors

Successful aging is a prominent theory that describes the aging process and the expected activities and behaviors older adults should engage in or exhibit to age successfully. Although this theory is used to gauge the extent to which older adults are aging successfully, older adults’ experiences and perspectives of what successful aging means to them are missing from the theory. A five-step scoping review framework was used to explore and synthesize the existing research that investigated older adults’ perspectives on successful aging. Twelve main themes were found and ranged from the importance of social relationships and interactions to having a good death. Findings indicated older adults do not define successful aging as strictly as is found in the literature. Old age and the aging process from the views of older adults provide future directions for theory development and research.

scholarly journals Embodied Aging: Everyday body practices and Later Life Identities among the South Asian Indian Gujarati Diaspora in Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-104
Author(s):  
Anusmita Devi ◽  
Laura Hurd ◽  
Tannistha Samanta
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Asian Indian ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
South Asian Indian

This study explores how South Asian Indian Gujarati older adults in Canada (Greater Vancouver area) strive to maintain personal continuity, citizenship, and selfhood through everyday body management practices (exercise/yoga, medication/health supplements, skin, and hair care routines) and cultural markers such as food, sartorial choices, and community engagement. This examination, we contend, is noteworthy against the backdrop of contemporary North American academic and popular discourses of a burgeoning consumerist movement around the medicalization of bodies and anti-aging technologies. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews of 26 older adults, we discuss how growing old in the diaspora is marked with moral ambivalence between ‘successful aging’ and ‘aging gracefully.’ Based on an inductive thematic analysis, we identify four major themes in how the older diaspora negotiate aging and reorganise their lives through changing social relations and shifting cultural institutions. The first theme is the growing salience of both bodily and social changes in conceptualizing “old age,” and how the experiences of aging vary by gender. Specifically, while most of the female participants visualized old age in terms of a loss of physical functionality, the male participants described agedness in terms of a loss of economic and social worth. The second major theme encapsulates the acceptable coping strategies for dealing with bodily changes and the associated reconfigurations of social roles. While a fit body and functionality were regarded as foundational traits for aging well by all participants, corrective measures or anti-aging products were not espoused as the most culturally appropriate “Indian” way of growing old. The third theme highlights the apprehensions regarding growing old in a foreign country, including a foreboding anxiety of dependence and frailty in the absence of traditional familial care networks. The final theme, explores how for most participants, the notion of home evoked ambivalence in constructing their sense of belonging and identity, often expressed through everyday practices and memory-keeping. Taken together, we ultimately show how age and embodiment are inextricably linked in the experience of growing old in the diaspora.

scholarly journals The Influence of Pension Mode on the Mental Health of Older Adults—Evidence from Older Adults in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Liqing Li ◽  
Luyao Yu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Negative Feeling ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
The Impact

Successful aging is achieved throughout the life course, and successful aging groups tend to have good psychosocial and physical conditions and are active in social activities. With increasing age, the mental health problems of older adults have become increasingly prominent, and the choice of pension mode is closely related to the mental health of older adults. Starting from the psychological level of the older adult, this paper used data from the 2018 Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to study the impact of three pension methods on the mental health of older adults. The study found that, at present, there are three types of pension modes in China: living alone, family pension, and institutional care, and family pensions are still the mainstream pension mode. Older adults with deeper negative feelings are more inclined to family pensions than to live alone, but the spiritual comfort provided by family members does not improve the negative feelings of older adults. Institutional care deepens the negative feeling and reduces the positive feeling of older adults. In addition, retirement or pension and medical insurance, as life security in old age, can effectively reduce the negative feelings of old age and promote positive feelings. In view of the present situation of China’s pension mode and the psychological characteristics of the older adults, we should further build a perfect family pension security system, promote the personalized service construction of older adult care institutions, promote applicable aging renovation of existing residential areas, and encourage older adults to engage in healthy exercise.

Multidomain trajectories of psychological functioning in old age: A longitudinal perspective on (uneven) successful aging.

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 2309-2324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Morack ◽  
Nilam Ram ◽  
Elizabeth B. Fauth ◽  
Denis Gerstorf
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Successful Aging

scholarly journals Older workers imagining retirement: the collapse of agency, or freedom at last?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Anne Skevik Grødem ◽  
Ragni Hege Kitterød
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Older Workers ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Work Patterns ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Retirement Decisions ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Images of what retirement is and ought to be are changing. Older workers are being encouraged to work for longer, at the same time, older adults increasingly voice expectations of a ‘third age’ of active engagement and new life prospects. In this article, we draw on the literature on older workers’ work patterns and retirement transitions (noting push/pull/stay/stuck/jump factors), and on scholarship on the changing social meaning of old age, most importantly the notions of a ‘third’ and ‘fourth’ age. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with 28 employees in the private sector in Norway, aged between 55 and 66 years. Based on the interviews, we propose three ideal-typical approaches to the work–retirement transition: ‘the logic of deadline’, ‘the logic of negotiation’ and ‘the logic of averting retirement’. The ideal-types are defined by the degree to which informants assume agency in the workplace, their orientation towards work versus retirement and the degree to which they expect to exercise agency in retirement. We emphasise how retirement decisions are informed by notions of the meaning of ageing, while also embedded in relationships with employers and partners.

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