Happily ever after? ‘Successful ageing’ and the heterosexual imaginary

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara L Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Queer Theory ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Successful Ageing ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Controversial Concept

‘Successful ageing’ has been a controversial concept in cultural gerontology, prompting critiques of its inherent individualism, neglect of structural inequalities and promotion of neoliberal strategies of self-care. This article aims at developing the critique of its heteronormative underpinnings. Drawing on cultural gerontology, feminist theory and queer theory, a critique of the rhetoric and visual representation of ‘successful ageing’ is developed that demonstrates the extent to which ‘success’ is equated with enactments of normative, gendered heterosexuality. The intent is not to simply map the exclusion or marginalization of queer representations but to make visible the ways in which assumptions of heterosexuality organize the visual field of ‘successful ageing’. Using examples from ‘lifestyle’ magazines and health promotion materials aimed at mid-to-later life adults, I demonstrate how the promise of ‘heterohappiness’ shapes visions of anticipatory ageing. This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

scholarly journals Fashion, the media and age: How women’s magazines use fashion to negotiate age identities

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Twigg
Keyword(s):  
Later Life ◽  
Women's Magazines ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Third Age ◽  
The Media ◽  
Ageing Body

The article explores the role of women’s magazines in the negotiation of later life identities, focussing on the treatment of fashion and dress. It locates the analysis in debates about the changing nature of later years with the emergence of Third Age identities, and the role of consumption in these. Focussed on the treatment of fashion and age, it analyses four UK magazines: three chosen to represent the older market ( Woman & Home, Saga, Yours), and one to represent mainstream fashion ( Vogue). It is based on interviews with four editors and analysis of the content of the magazines. The article analyses the media strategies that journalists use to negotiate tensions in the presentation of fashion for this group and their role in supporting new formations of age. This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

The ageing body in Monty Python Live (Mostly)

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-394
Author(s):  
Line Nybro Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The World ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
Monty Python

This article analyses representations of the ageing body in the live televised show Monty Python Live (Mostly) (2014). The famous satire group performed in the O2 arena in London, and the show was telecast live in cinemas and aired on television across the world. In the show, the group members, now in their 70s, reprise a series of their most popular sketches and introduce a few new sketches. This analysis focuses on the ways in which representations of the ageing body intersect with representations of gender and sexuality in order to discuss how the boundaries for appropriation and subversion become blurred in the context of the show. This article combines theory of mediatisation with cultural gerontology and feminist theory in order to bring these issues to light. I argue that the show offers an appropriation of the female ageing body – often exemplified through cross-dressing – but also a subversion of sexuality for ageing bodies (both male and female). This article forms part of ‘Media and the Ageing Body’ Special Issue.

Afterword: Reprise and reflection*

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110242
Author(s):  
Terrell Carver
Keyword(s):  
Later Life ◽  
Space Time ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Activities

The bicentenary of Engels’s birth in 1820 is an occasion for assessing his works as received by geographers. This Afterword to the special issue draws on Terrell Carver’s recent researches into Engels’s political activities and associations, beginning with his schooldays in Wuppertal, focusing on his Anglo-German journalism, continuing through his political partnership with Marx, and extending after the latter’s death into later life in London. The article demonstrates the value of close contextual attention to the precise character of the political regimes which Engels struggled to change. This approach also reveals the Marx-centric terms through which Engels has been understood, thus undervaluing many of his achievements. Concluding speculatively, it is possible to glimpse in Engels’s thought a geography of space-time, where capitalism is an Einsteinian warp.

scholarly journals Poetry as Praxis + “Illumination”: Toward an Epistemically Just Health Promotion for Resistance, Healing, and (Re)Imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 20S-26S
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Petteway
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Black Feminist Theory ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
A Site

Health promotion is facing a most challenging future in the intersections of structural racism, COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), racialized police violence, and climate change. Now is a critical moment to ask how health promotion might become more responsive to and representative of people’s daily realities. Also how it can become a more inclusive partner in, and collaborative conduit of, knowledge—one capable of both informing intellects and transforming hearts. It needs to feel the pulse of the “fierce urgency of now,” and perhaps nothing can reveal this pulse more than the creative power of art—especially poetry. Drawing from critical and Black feminist theory, I use commentary in prose to conceptualize and call for an epistemically just health promotion guided by poetry as praxis—not just as method. I posit that, as praxis rooted in lived realities, poetry becomes experiential excavation and illumination; a practice of community, communion, and solidarity; a site and source of healing; and a space to create new narratives of health to forge new paths toward its promotion. I accordingly suggest a need to view and value poetry as a critical scholarship format to advance health promotion knowledge, discourse, and action toward a more humanized pursuit—and narrative—of health equity.

scholarly journals Educational programmes for frail older people, their families, carers and healthcare professionals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel J. Viggars ◽  
Andrew Finney ◽  
Barnabas Panayiotou
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Older People ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Educational Programmes ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Summary Background More people are living with frailty and requiring additional health and support services. To improve their management, the “Frailty: Core Capability Framework” in the United Kingdom recommends frailty education for older individuals, their families, carers and health professionals. We performed a systematic review of specific educational programmes for these groups. Methods Electronic databases were searched using dedicated search terms and inclusion criteria. To improve accuracy, two reviewers carried out the screening and selection of research papers. Information from included studies was collected using a tailored data extraction template, and quality appraisal tools were used to assess the rigour of the studies. The findings were analysed to identify key themes. Results A total of 11 studies met the criteria and were included in the review. The study populations ranged from 12 to 603 and the research designs were heterogeneous (6 qualitative; 2 randomised controlled trials; 1 quasi-experimental; 1 mixed methods; 1 cross-sectional study). Whilst some methodological shortcomings were identified, all studies contributed valuable information. The results underwent narrative synthesis, which elucidated four thematic domains: (1) accessibility of educational programmes, (2) empowerment, (3) self-care, and (4) health promotion (especially exercise and nutrition). Conclusion Educational programmes for older people, their carers and health professionals are important for effective frailty prevention and management. To be maximally beneficial, they should be easily accessible to all target populations and include empowerment, self-care and health promotion. Further research should explore the formulation of widely applicable, user-friendly programmes and delivery formats that can be tailored to different client groups.

scholarly journals Preface to “Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities—2nd Edition”

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Antonino Bianco
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Special Issue

The second edition of the Special Issue entitled “Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents through Sport and Physical Activities” has been successfully completed, as expected [...]

Theorising Sleep Practices and Later Life: Moving to Sheltered Housing

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 214-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Fairhurst
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Sheltered Housing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Professional Discourse ◽  
Interesting Topic

This paper re-analyses data from a study of older people and sheltered housing which combined textual analysis of professional discourse with interviews. There were only two references salient to ‘sleep’ in that paper and I offered no analytic comment upon them. At that time, then, sleep as a sociologically interesting topic, was, for me a taken for granted matter. It is that taken for grantedness that is examined here. On being invited to contribute to this special issue, I went back to the original data and interrogated it for ‘sleep’. I realised that, with this different concern, the texts and interviews contained much more about the ‘doing’ of sleep in later life than I had appreciated, especially where, when and how sleeping practices occur. Sleeping ‘upstairs’ or ‘downstairs’, in a single- or double-bed and on which side of the bed were all matters of relevance when older people were considering a move to sheltered housing. Older people's own sleeping practices are contrasted with those offered in texts produced by architects designing sheltered housing. The paper concludes by considering the methodological implications of re-analysing research materials for emerging sociological topics and by giving pointers to future research on sleep practices in later life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document