scholarly journals To be Forever Young? Towards Reframing Corporeal Subjectivity in Maturity

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Schwaiger

In this paper I examine the relationship between the body in midlife and subjectivity in contemporary western cultures, drawing on both social constructionist and psychoanalytic perspectives. Referring to recent theoretical accounts, I take the position that how we are aged by culture begins in midlife, and that this period is therefore critical in understanding how the body-subject in western consumer cultures is aged and gendered through culturally normative discourses and practices. I also address the gendering of ageing bodies, and argue that, like the feminine, ageing has been marked by ambiguity and lack. This ambiguity has presented a problem for dualistic age theories, in that it has been difficult to theorize the ageing body productively since the binary language used to theorize it already devalues old age. I contend that our tacit understanding of both male and female ageing bodies is as discursively constituted as ’feminine’, based on cultural perceptions of loss of bodily control and the ambiguity of ageing bodies that become increasingly recalcitrant in the ’correct’ performance of cultural age and gender norms. Finally, I inquire whether alternative, non-dualistic perspectives might be developed that redress this problem, and disrupt the alignment of ageing with negative associations such as lack and loss, perspectives that, rather than associating gendered ageing with decline, loss or lack, associate it with the goal of living an abundant life into deep old age.

2020 ◽  
pp. 0887302X2093706
Author(s):  
Jooyeon Lee ◽  
Yun-Ja Nam ◽  
Jinhee Park

We analyzed the relationship between actual and perceived body, the effect of body shape on this relationship, and age and gender differences within it. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using body measurement data of 6,172 Koreans aged 15–69 years, in addition to a survey about perceived body types. We determined the body perception type according to the congruence between perceived and actual body. Using the body proportion index, we identified whether there were physical features depending on perception type. Women perceived their bodies more objectively than did men and eased their physical evaluation standards in their 50s. On the other hand, men tended to underestimate their obesity levels since their youth. In addition, participants underestimating their bodies had a high body mass index. These results provide an overall understanding of the tendency to perceive the body differently by age and gender and may be used as a reference in clothing design.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097168582110159
Author(s):  
Sital Mohanty ◽  
Subhasis Sahoo ◽  
Pranay Kumar Swain

Science, technology and human values have been the subject of enquiry in the last few years for social scientists and eventually the relationship between science and gender is the subject of an ongoing debate. This is due to the event of globalization which led to the exponential growth of new technologies like assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART, one of the most iconic technological innovations of the twentieth century, has become increasingly a normal social fact of life. Since ART invades multiple human discourses—thereby transforming culture, society and politics—it is important what is sociological about ART as well as what is biological. This article argues in commendation of sociology of technology, which is alert to its democratic potential but does not concurrently conceal the historical and continuing role of technology in legitimizing gender discrimination. The article draws the empirical insights from local articulations (i.e., Odisha state in eastern India) for the understandings of motherhood, freedom and choice, reproductive right and rights over the body to which ART has contributed. Sociologically, the article has been supplemented within the broader perspectives of determinism, compatibilism alongside feminism.


Author(s):  
Lora I. Dimitrova ◽  
Eline M. Vissia ◽  
Hanneke Geugies ◽  
Hedwig Hofstetter ◽  
Sima Chalavi ◽  
...  

AbstractIt is unknown how self-relevance is dependent on emotional salience. Emotional salience encompasses an individual's degree of attraction or aversion to emotionally-valenced information. The current study investigated the interconnection between self and salience through the evaluation of emotional valence and self-relevance. 56 native Dutch participants completed a questionnaire assessing valence, intensity, and self-relevance of 552 Dutch nouns and verbs. One-way repeated-measures ANCOVA investigated the relationship between valence and self, age and gender. Repeated-measures ANCOVA also tested the relationship between valence and self with intensity ratings and effects of gender and age. Results showed a significant main effect of valence for self-relevant words. Intensity analyses showed a main effect of valence but not of self-relevance. There were no significant effects of gender and age. The most important finding presents that self-relevance is dependent on valence. These findings concerning the relationship between self and salience opens avenues to study an individual's self-definition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally A. White

The Psychological Skills Inventory for Sport (PSIS; Mahoney, 1988) identifies certain psychological skills or characteristics possessed by successful athletes. However, little has been done to connect the PSIS with other variables that may have an impact on the athletes’ psychological skills. Therefore the purpose of this study was twofold. First, the psychometric properties of the PSIS for all subjects and by gender were determined. Second, the relationship between the PSIS, experience, practice commitment, and gender of collegiate skiers was examined. A random sample of 131 male and female collegiate skiers responded to the 45-item PSIS. Overall, the six PSIS subscales (anxiety, concentration, confidence, mental preparation, motivation, and team emphasis) demonstrated acceptable internal reliability (coeff. alpha = .69−.84). Results of a 4 × 3 × 2 (Experience × Practice Commitment × Gender) MANOVA and follow-up univariate F tests revealed a significant gender effect on the team emphasis subscale. Female collegiate skiers were more team oriented than male collegiate skiers and placed more importance on the social and affiliative aspects of being on a team than did their male counterparts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Husin Thamrin ◽  
Khafidhotul Ilmiah ◽  
Ni Wajan Tirthaningsih

Colorectal cancer has became burden in the world.The latest study shows that colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and second most common cancer in women globally. There are difference characteristic of epidemiology in every countries. Moreover, there is no study that represents epidemiology of colorectal cancer in Indonesia yet, especially in East Java. The aim of this study was to describe colorectal tumor profile by age and gender in Gastroentero-Hepatology Center, Dr Soetomo Hospital. This study has received a certificate of Ethical Clearance No.273/Panke.KKE/IV/2015, a descriptive retrospective study. We collected data using medical records, and patients who have been colonoscopy examination and suspected colorectal tumor were included. There were 201 patients, divided to 100 males and 101 females. The peak of incidence was on 51-60 years old group, but on the 31-40 years old incidence of colorectal tumor was increased. The youngest patient was 17 years old. And tumors are more likely develop in distal area, especially in rectum. This study shows a different characteristic profile of colorectal tumor, where tumor is developed at young people and there is no significant difference between male and female for the incidence.


1969 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-528
Author(s):  
MUHAMMAD ASIF IQBAL ◽  
IKRAMULLAH ◽  
ABDUL HADI ◽  
FAROOQ AHMAD ◽  
MUHAMMAD REHANUL HAQ ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVE: To describe conventional risk factors by age and gender in coronary artery diseasepatients.MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in outdoor patient department of agencyheadquarter hospital (AHQ) Landikotal, Khyber agency, from June to October 2013. It was a hospitalbased descriptive observational study. Sample size was 926 patients with established coronary arterydisease, recruited through purposive convenient sampling technique. Adult patients (above 18 years) ofboth genders with coronary artery disease were included in the study. Every patient was evaluated forthe presence of conventional risk factors. Card vascular risk factors were assessed by a self-administeredquestionnaire and various laboratory tests.RESULTS: Total patients were 926, male were 546(59%). Mean age was 58.28±12.005 years (20-95years). Study population was divided into younger (age <40 years) and older age groups (> 40 years).Younger patients were 66(7.1%) and older age 866(92.9%). Hypertension was present in 563 patients(61.1%) with 59.2%and 63.2% in male and female, respectively (p=0.186). Diabetes was present in29.9% with 27.8% in male and 32.9% in female patients (p=0.098).Hypertension was significantly morecommon in older patients while smoking and heavy fat intake was significantly more common inyounger patients. Other risk factors for CAD were similar across younger and older age groups.CONCLUSION: Conventional risk factor in male and female differ widely with smoking, ex-smoker,heavy fat intake and obesity is significantly more common in male patients, while family history forCAD is common in female patients. Diabetes is higher in 40 years or above patients while smoking ishigher in patients less than 40 years.KEY WORDS: Conventional Risk Factor, Coronary Artery Disease, Age, Gender


Author(s):  
JoEllen DeLucia

This chapter examines the relationship between time, feeling, and gender in two foundational texts of the Scottish Enlightenment, the Ossian poems and Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. It contends that Macpherson and Smith created a temporal map of emotion that gauged social development from “primitive” to “developed” cultures and offered women writers and Scottish philosophers a new field upon which they could experiment with the relationship between gender and historical progress. Despite their obvious differences, Macpherson and Smith used women’s social status and the feminine values they were thought to impart to their male counterparts as tools for charting, evaluating, and questioning emerging theories of historical change. The ambiguity surrounding feminine sentiments’ placement in these Scottish Enlightenment narratives of historical progress creates the foundation for the following chapters, which trace women writers’ engagement with the theories of feeling and historical progress articulated by these two influential writers.


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