Gender, (in)equality and the body in later life 37 2001; Hurd, 1999). Consequently, older adults are systematically marginalised and denied resources and opportunities (Bytheway and Johnson, 1990) in the workplace (Harris et al., 2018; Stypinska and Turek, 2017), the health care sys-tem (Ben-Harush et al., 2016; Chrisler, Barney and Palatino, 2016; Robb, Chen and Haley, 2002) and in everyday interactions (Hurd Clarke and Korotchenko, 2016; Vincent, 2015).
Underlying the prejudicial treatment and exclusion of older adults are deeply entrenched stereotypes about aged bodies. Associated with asexuality, depend-ence, frailty, senility, poor health, unattractiveness and loss of productivity, older bodies are assumed to be flawed, deviant, objectionable and unruly (Cuddy, Norton and Fiske, 2005; Nelson, 2002; Nussbaum et al., 2005; Palmore, 1999).
Rather than being perceived as an accomplishment or the outcome of good fortune, the accumulation of corporeal mileage is increasingly positioned as undesirable if not dangerous. Older bodies are constructed as less than ideal, as they are linked with decreasing attractiveness, loss of health, functional depend-ence and declining social currency (Hurd, 1999).
At the same time, ageist stereotypes, especially those concerning the body, are gendered and position older men and women in distinctly different ways (Krekula, Nikander and Wilinska, 2018). Sontag (1997) has argued that the double standard of ageing means that older men who are wealthy and power-ful are often considered sexy and distinguished in later life irrespective of their ageing appearances. In contrast, signs of ageing in older women are thought to be unfortunate, if not unappealing, as female beauty is primarily associated with youthful, toned, slim, voluptuous and wrinkle-free bodies (Bordo, 2003;
Calasanti and Slevin, 2001; Hurd Clarke, 2011). The different reading of older men’s and women’s bodies reflects masculinity and femininity ideals. Men are primarily valued for what they do with their bodies, as idealised masculinity is associated with accomplishment, dominance, economic and political power, and hyper sexuality (Calasanti, 2004; Marshall, 2006; Meadows and Davidson, 2006). Women’s social value is closely tied to their appearances, specifically their ability to be aesthetically pleasing and capture the male gaze (Bordo, 2003). Thus, while looking older may augment a man’s status as an experi-enced, powerful leader (Hurd Clarke, Bennett and Liu, 2014; McGann et al., 2016; Thompson, 2006), having an ageing appearance diminishes a woman’s erotic capital (Hakim, 2011; Sontag, 1997).
The negative framing of older bodies is further strengthened by healthism, which Crawford (1980, 2006) has defined as the cultural positioning of health as both a personal responsibility and a product of individual effort. Construct-ing poor health as the result of moral laxity, healthism diverts attention away from the impact of accumulated health and social inequities over the life course (Crawford, 1980, 2006; Dworkin and Wachs, 2009; Hurd Clarke and Bennett, 2013b). This understanding of health is deeply entrenched in Rowe and Kahn’s (1997) concept of successful ageing, which they have defined as low probabil-ity of disease and disabilprobabil-ity, high functioning and active life engagement, and similarly argued is attainable ‘through individual choice and effort’ (Rowe and
38 Laura Hurd Clarke
Kahn, 1998, 37). To avoid poor health and ‘failing’ at ageing, individuals are thus increasingly expected to actively engage in an ever-widening array of bodily practices to ensure the optimisation of their bodies (Higgs et al., 2009). Self-care regimens encompassing everything from healthy lifestyles to appearance management are promoted as a means of disciplining the body, fighting the physical realities of growing older, and demonstrating one’s morality (Carter, 2016; Lefkowich et al., 2017). In other words, health has become a commodity that individuals are expected to purchase through active personal investment and engagement with consumer culture (Crawford, 1980, 2006; Leontowitsch et al., 2010). Despite the inevitability of physical changes over time and the fact that the ability to consume health promotion is limited by one’s socio-economic status, healthism has thus resulted in the blaming of individuals, as poor health and disability have been redefined as evidence of an individual’s moral failure resulting from a lack of proper care for the body (Becker, 1986;
Galvin, 2002; Katz, 2005).
Ageing into oblivion: the cultural invisibility of older bodies
Older adults’ unequal access to resources, representation and recognition are additionally reflected in and constituted by the ways that their corporeality is given meaning through symbolic signification (Ylänne, 2012). Indeed, cultural portrayals of later life and older bodies ‘create expectations of what it is to be a person of a particular age’ (Bytheway, 2011, 80). To date, these expectations have been largely negative, as media messages concerning later life have ‘depicted old bodies as problems, in decline and miserable’ (Calasanti, Sorensen and King, 2012, 20). In particular, portrayals of old age have reproduced and reinforced associations between ageing and loss of attractiveness, health, independence and cultural value, as well as assumptions that later life is a time of social and politi-cal disengagement (Bytheway, 2011; Nelson, 2002; Rozanova, 2010). Notably, older women have been depicted more negatively than their male counterparts, as women in later life have been portrayed in ways that suggest that they have
‘lost their utility as their youth and sexual appeal have faded’ (Sink and Mastro, 2017, 18; Lauzen and Dozier, 2005; Lemish and Muhlbauer, 2012; Vares, 2009).
As such, these images mirror and reinforce older women’s lack of representa-tion, or political voice (Fraser, 2007), in a cultural landscape where they are increasingly denied citizenship.
At the same time, older adults have been largely under-represented across various forms of media, including advertising (Calasanti, Sorensen and King, 2012; Lee, Carpenter and Meyers, 2007), television (Dolan and Tincknell, 2013; Kessler, Rakoczy and Staudinger, 2004; Sink and Mastro, 2017), main-stream newspapers (Fealy et al., 2012; Rozanova, 2010; Wada, Hurd Clarke and Rozanova, 2015), popular magazines (Hurd Clarke et al., 2014; Lewis, Medvedev and Seponski, 2011; Wada, Clarke and Rozanova, 2015) and Hol-lywood movies (Bazzini et al., 1997; Chivers, 2011; Robinson et al., 2007). This
Gender, (in)equality and the body in later life 39 lack of a cultural presence has been attributed to the devaluation of later life and the assumption that advanced age is not a marketable commodity (Cala-santi, 2007). The cultural invisibility of older adults and ageing bodies is even more pronounced when considering intersecting forms of oppression such as age, disability, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and social class (Calasanti and Slevin, 2001; Slevin, 2006). In particular, depictions of ageing are underscored by ableism, classism, heterosexism, racism and sexism, as the limited numbers of portrayals of older bodies are primarily of White, heterosexual, middle-class and upper-class men (Deliovsky, 2008; Gross, 2012). As such, portrayals of cultural diversity, disability, LGTBQ ageing and women are particularly scarce, reflect-ing their social exclusion and oppressed status in society more generally.
That said, more recent research indicates that although limited, media depic-tions of older adults, especially those of older, heterosexual, White men, are becoming more positive as older men are often portrayed as happy, healthy, distinguished, powerful and sexy (Chivers, 2011; Hurd Clarke et al., 2014;
Spector-Mersel, 2006; Williams et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2006). These portray-als increasingly suggest the possibility of ‘growing older without aging’ (Katz, 2005, 188) as they position ageing, like health, as a choice made possible by consumption and attention to lifestyle. The changing depiction of ageing is reflective of a powerful social imaginary in which good ageing is juxtaposed against bad ageing, particularly in advertising and celebrity culture (Lemish and Muhlbauer, 2012; Marshall and Rahman, 2015). Positive portrayals draw upon Third Age imagery which points to ‘an aging youth culture’ (Higgs and McGowan, 2013, 22) and is characterised by health, independence, leisure, con-sumption, and social engagement (Gilleard and Higgs, 2005). The third age is contrasted with the dreaded fourth age (Gilleard and Higgs, 2000, 2010), which is understood and represented as the ‘era of final dependence, decrepitude and death’ (Laslett, 1996, 4). The fourth age is the embodiment of ageist stereotypes and the realisation of societal fears related to growing older and end of life.
Given the inevitability of decline and death as well as the ways in which socio-economic status determines one’s consumption ability, third age older bodies constitute an aspirational way of ageing that is increasingly elusive with the pas-sage of time and only attainable by a limited segment of the older population.
The body as diminishing resource: subjective perceptions and experiences
As ageism undermines the recognition of older bodies, and media depictions of later life reflect an increasingly unachievable ideal, older adults’ perceptions and experiences of their bodies as resources are invariably challenged. The body image research sheds light on the personal meanings and values that older adults ascribe to their bodies in their everyday lives. Defined as individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of their bodies (Grogan, 2016), body image reflects how individuals evaluate their physical selves relative to age norms and gender ideals as well as the resultant investments they make to enhance or preserve
40 Laura Hurd Clarke
their appearances and body functionality. While the number of published studies continues to be limited, the body image research concerning older men reveals that their corporeal evaluations are strongly influenced by masculinity ideals which emphasise the importance of having an athletic, physically imposing, strong, youthful and virile body (Connell, 1987, 1995; Kimmel, 2005; Ridge-way and Tylka, 2005). Thus, older men report body dissatisfaction primarily in relation to reduced muscularity, changes in health status and declining physical abilities (Hurd Clarke, Griffin and The PACC Research Team, 2008; Kaminski and Hayslip, 2006; Liechty et al., 2014; Tiggemann, 2004). In an effort to redress changing body functionality, older men have been found to turn to exercise, sport, and the use of pharmaceuticals such as Viagra and Cialis (Calasanti et al., 2013; Marshall, 2010). In contrast, older women tend to express dissatisfaction with their appearance, directing their discontent towards their wrinkles, sag-ging skin, weight gain, and grey hair (Baker and Gringart, 2009; Hurd Clarke, 2011; Slevin, 2010; Tiggeman, 2004; Ward and Holland, 2011). Consequently, older women often use make-up, hair dye, non-surgical and surgical procedures or fashion to mask their chronological age and more closely approximate the youthful, feminine beauty ideal (Brooks, 2010; Hurd Clarke and Griffin, 2008;
Hurd Clarke, Griffin and Maliha, 2009; Muise and Desmarais, 2010; Slevin, 2010; Smirnova, 2012).
A growing literature explores body image among diverse older populations, revealing important similarities to and differences from studies with predom-inantly heterosexual, White sample participants. For example, older gay and bisexual men have been found to have heightened body image dissatisfaction relative to their heterosexual counterparts which has been attributed to their internalisation of sub-cultural norms that privilege youthful and muscular appearances (Brennan, Craig and Thompson, 2012; Drummond, 2006; Slevin and Linneman, 2010). The research that has included or focused on older les-bians and bisexual women offers some conflicting insights. On the one hand, a few studies suggest that lesbians may be protected from the body discon-tent that is prevalent among heterosexual women as a result of their freedom from the male gaze and differing appearance norms in lesbian communities (Bergeron and Senn, 1998; Clarke and Turner, 2007; Winterich, 2007). How-ever, other research suggests that gender socialisation is a stronger determinant of body image as lesbians internalise feminine beauty ideals, which in turn leads to body image dissatisfaction comparable to heterosexual women (Hux-ley, Clarke and Halliwell, 2014; Kelly, 2007; Peplau et al., 2009; Slevin, 2006).
The limited research that has explored the impact of culture and race on body image in later life has found that non-White, older men and women report higher body satisfaction than individuals of European descent (Cachelin et al., 2002; Dunkel, Davidson and Qurashi, 2010; Reboussin et al., 2000), although acculturation and the effects of globalisation often negatively impact individu-als’ body perceptions (Sussman, Truong and Lim, 2007).
At the same time, the research suggests that the importance of appearance for both men and women declines over time as body functionality becomes
Gender, (in)equality and the body in later life 41 more salient (Baker and Gringart, 2009; Hurd, 2000; Jankowski et al., 2016;
Reboussin et al., 2000; Reddy, 2013; Tiggemann, 2004). The shifting of priori-ties may reflect alterations in individuals’ embodiment or their ‘experiences in and through the body’ (Hurd Clarke and Korotchenko, 2011, 496). In par-ticular, changing health and concomitant physical abilities may disrupt older adults’ embodied identities and personal narratives (Bury, 1982). In this way, bodily changes may result in biographical disruption, as awareness of the body is heightened and taken-for-granted assumptions about physical abilities and future possibilities are renegotiated (Bury, 1982). Biographical disruption is a gendered process, as men and women make sense of their altered corpo-real corpo-realities in light of masculine and feminine ideals (Charmaz, 1994; Hurd Clarke and Bennett, 2013a; Hurd Clarke, Griffin and The PACC Research Team, 2008; Oliffe, 2009). While men experience the body as a diminished or failing resource in terms of their declining abilities to be autonomous, strong leaders, women express dismay over their changing appearances as well as their decreased abilities to perform femininity through nurturing and/or caregiv-ing roles (Hurd Clarke and Bennett, 2013a). To date, the literature concerncaregiv-ing biographical disruption and gender in later life has not explored the impact of culture, race or sexuality on older adults’ perceptions and experiences and thus constitutes an area of scholarship much in need of exploration.
Concluding comments
In this chapter, I have drawn upon Fraser’s (2007) conceptualisation of recog-nition, representation and resources to survey the literature and consider how older adults’ experiences of inequality and exclusion are related to and medi-ated by the body. In particular, I have examined how older bodies are deval-ued as a result of ageism and healthism, how later life is culturally represented in ways that reproduce ageist and sexist stereotypes and establish increasingly elusive ideals, and finally how older adults internalise age and gender norms to the detriment of their body image and embodied experience. I have fur-ther explored how the recognition, representation and resourcing of the older body is gendered and shaped by intersecting multiple oppressions. I join Fraser (2007) in the call to consider the complex ways that social structures combine with cultural constructions and result in injustice, understood in the context of this chapter in relation to ageing corporeality. In a world where youth, health and independence are increasingly valorised and privileged, ageing, and having an older body, disadvantages individuals who become ever more invisible and excluded.
Future research will need to continue to track the impact of third age imagery on older adults’ exclusion, personal evaluations of their bodies and expectations about and experiences in later life. Additionally, more research is needed to understand the role of the body in the exclusion of marginalised older adults. For example, to date, there is no research that has explored the bodily perceptions and experiences of ageing trans individuals and very few
42 Laura Hurd Clarke
studies have examined the body image and embodied experiences of culturally diverse older adults. Given the centrality of the body to social exclusion in later life, these avenues of future scholarship will invariably shed important light on how corporeality underlies the systematic oppression of older adults in taken-for-granted yet insidious ways.
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