Gender and Aging prof hopkins

GENERATIONS

Ageism, Gravity, and Gender:

Experiences of Aging Bodies By Toni Calasanti

Ageism differs from •other forms of op- pression in two significant ways. First, it is the one source of disadvantage that we will all fece, should we live long enough, though when and how depends upon a number of factors. In addition, because our culture is ageist, we learn this form of bigotry from the time we are born. As a result, we ultimately oppress oiurselves: Either we try to avoid the aging process or we lose self-esteem because of the selves we feel we are becoming.

This attempt to distance ourselves fkjm those who are old and from our awn aging ofren cen- ters upon our bodies. In this article, I explore the connections between ageism, how bodies are experienced, and the anti-aging industry.

AGEISM AND A G E RELATIONS

Ageism includes categorization, stereotyp- ing, and prejudice, but die most crucial aspect is exclusionary behavior. In Buder's (1969, p. 243) original formulation, ageism is the "sys- tematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender." Individuals may or may not a a in accordance with their prejudices. Thus, just as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally for- bids some forms of race-based discriminadon

The quest to be 'not old.'

•• regardless of individual prejudice, so too does the Age Discrimination in

- Employment Act of 1967 oudaw age-based discrim-

inadon in the workplace regardless of employ- ers' ageist beliefs. A focus on exclusionary behavior highlights societal charaaerisdcs that help explain the persistence of ageism in the United States despite changing values and beliefe. This focus pushes us to explore how, for example, ageism can be embedded in insdtu- dons such that simply following "normal" pro- cedures or behaving in taken-for-granted ways can exclude old people, even if individuals do not harbor ageist attitudes.

Ageism is founded in age relations. Societies organize on the basis of age such that different age groups gain identities and power in relation to one another. Thus, membership in age categories shajjes our self-concepts and carries material con- sequences that influence our life chances. This arrangement means that some age groups benefit from ageism at others' expense. Those who are "not old" escape stigma and feel included. They fece less competition for valuable resources, such as jobs, wealth, or other sources of status.

And particularly because age reladons have implicadons for power and life chances, people will avoid identifying themselves as old (Minichiello, Browne, and Kendig, 2000),

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whereas younger people tend not to avoid the fact of their age. Despite the physical changes that occur across the life course and negadve stereotypes that can accrue to other age cate- gories, it is only old age that we attempt to purge from the developmental landscape (Andrews, 1999). Negatives that accrue to other ages, such as young people's lack of experience or matu- rity, are seen as being offset by positives; but the same is not true of old age.

Throughout this article, then, when I refer to ageism I will be referring to both attitudes and exclusion. I will have in mind the age rela- tions that underlie ageism and the ways that bodies may come to signify old age.

BODIES AS MARKERS OF O L D A G E

Bodily signs of old age can serve as physical markers for those who will be excluded. The ways in which bodies—broadly understood— can be differentiated as "old" and "not old" thus bears further exploration.

Typically, scholars have taken two general approaches to the topic of bodies. For some, the most important aspects of bodies are the biological, material bases that they form, upon which individuals and societies are founded. Bodies are "real" and constrain or provide peo- ple opportunities that are refleaed in social rela- tions and lifestyles. For other scholars, the important aspects of bodies are our social con- strucdons of diem, the fea that they are "shaped, constrained, even invented by society" (Laz, 2003, p.504). Within gerontology, these per- spectives translate into two contrasting views. The first gives primacy to the biological bases of aging; the second emphasizes old age as a "sociocultural phenomenon . . . and focuses attention on processes of social construction" (Kontos, 1999, P-677)-

Recent scholarship works to overcome the dualities suggested by these segregated strains of scholarship, emphasizing bodies as simultane- ously material and construaed. That is, bodies have both a physical, flesh, and blood reality as well as an experiendal dimension that is subject to interpretation. Viewing old bodies as physi- cal and constructed, we can see that the changes that occur with aging have a material reality that we interpret, shape, and express in accordance

with age relations (Laz, 2003; Calasanti and Slevin, 2001). People tend to view a bikini one way when it is worn by a 25-year-old woman and another way when it is worn by a 65-year- old, even if the women's bodies look much alike. The mere occurrence of physical changes does not explain ageism; it is the meaning we give to these changes that matters. The common interpretation of the onset of menstruadon is very different fi-om the common interpretadon of menopause. And while similarities may accrue, definitions of debilitating illnesses also vary with the age of the sufferer.

In contemporary U.S. culture, two conver- gent themes concerning bodies influence ageism and the status of old people. First, people equate health with goodness, assume that health is immediately apparent, and believe that people can control this facet of their lives. Therefore, to appear unhealthy is to have failed and to deserve one's fate; one ought to have changed one's lifestyle or diet. Second, people equate old age with disease and decline. Such cultural norms influence our interpretation of aging bodies. If we think of age as a p a t h o l o g y - believe it to be the opposite of health—then we stigmatize and exclude those w h o are so afflicted. Further, if health is both apparent and under one's control, then physical signs of aging not only enable categorizadon but promote dif- ferential treatment: "Old age is a disease, the symptoms of which are sagging, wrinkling, and graying—all of which are . . . symbols of a lack of control, which is unacceptable in contem- porary society" (Jones and Pugh, 2005, p.254). Bodies that appear to be aging confer the sdgma that accrues to old age, and people respond accordingly Hurd's (1999) research among older women finds that "old age and old bodies . . . generate fear, animosity, and distancing" and that this distancing "serves to bifiarcate the gen- eral grouping of older adults into the categories of the 'old' and the 'not old'" (pp.420,422).

Finally, not only do bodies mark someone as old, but ageism also influences how we experi- ence our bodies. One either feels comfortable wearing a short skirt or feels like a fool; one may not feel firee to express sexuality or to do so in particular ways. Fiirther, percepdons of old bod- ies are shaped by and reflect multiple, inter-

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secting social hierarchies. As a result, people's bodies are not marked or experienced as "old" in a universal manner but rather the perception varies by gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sex- ual orientation.

BODIES AND AGEISM

Individuals experience their bodies in rela- tion to old age in terms of how they look and how they act. Each of these qualities is gen- dered—that is, reflects gender differences or stereotypical gender roles. So, while appearance and activity are important for both men and women, the ways in which they matter and are expressed vary by gender.

Appearance. Most people include "sagging, wrinkling, and graying" among the markers of being "old." Yet, these apparendy universal traits are differendy assessed on gendered bodies: Women are seen to be "old" much sooner than men. We don't generally refer to men as "sag- ging." Wrinkles and grey hair are problematic at much younger ages for women than for men and, indeed, may even accord men some status.

One reason for this earlier onset of old age for women is that, traditionally, how they look carries far more social capital than do other aspects of their lives. Media and other aspects of current culture convey the notion that women's bodies are to serve as figures of erotic spectacle for men, objects of "the male gaze" (Mulvey, 1990, p.33). This phenomenon is not only objectifying but also threatening in that constant public scrutiny "means that many women are permanendy dissatisfied with their appearance and feel they must strive to change or enhance it to meet some unattainable stan- dard of beauty" (Jones and Pugh, 2005, p.253). Old age heightens consciousness of failure because such standards are also based on youth. Old people, and particularly old women, are subject to a "gaze of youth" (Twigg, 2004, p.65) that is doubly threatening.

Even if women uphold positive self-images in reladon to growing older, their experiences of their bodies may contradict this stance. One woman in Hurd's (1999) study asserted that she fotmd the sight of old women walking around naked in the changing room repulsive: "There's nothing I hate more than an ugly woman. Their

big fat asses hanging out and their big fat stom- achs hanging over. Egad. It's awfiil!" (p. 432). Preliminary evidence suggests that some of this body dissatisfaction may be most common among white, middle-dass women. Older pro- fessional African American women seem far more at ease with their bodies (Slevin and Wingrove, 1998).

Because the culture equates health with good- ness and moral virtue, and most people think health is apparent on the surface, we take those who "look good" to be healthy. Attractiveness and health are thus linked, and both men and women strive to have bodies that appear healthy as they age. However, marketers and others influ- ential in popular culture stress different compo- nents of this health-appearance association at various times: For women, appearance in terms of sexual attractiveness prevails; for men, appear- ance means looking like one can "perform." This emphasis on performance suggests the second main way in which old people's bodies are madced and experienced: in terms of what they do.

Activity. In both popular culture and geron- tological literature, a "busy body" is central to remaining "not old" (Katz, 2000). Although now associated with notions of "successfiil aging," the dictate to be active has long held sway in gerontology and is embedded in our culture. Thus, the mandate to remain physically and socially acdve in order to "avoid . . . disease and disability [and] maintain mental and phys- ical function" both reflects and reinforces cial- tural norms, as does the assertion that successfiil agjng "can be attained through individual choice and effort" (Rowe and Kahn, 1998, pp.37, 39). In light of the physical changes that occur with age, then, old people and their bodies must become subject to a kind of discipline that directs them to activity (Katz, 2000). We define those who are unwilling or unable to be active as "old," expressing pity for those in residendal care and antipathy toward those who prefer contempla- tion or who are simply sedentary (Hurd, 1999).

Through activity one demonstrates produc- tivity and hence social worth (Hurd, 1999), an equation that ascribes value to pursuits typical of middle age. Those activities most valued have a productive referent—they have economic value even if they are not engaged in for pay—or they

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require energetic consumption (Katz, 2000). Thus, volunteer work is valuable. According to this view, white, middle-class women might serve on museum boards, and retired profes- sional black women might volunteer in schools or in youth programs that seek to improve the lot of black children and their communities (Slevin and Wingrove, 1998). Advertising images of old people playing golf or tennis, traveling, jogging on resort beaches, or sipping wine in posh retirement communities assume the sort of active lifestyle available to men whose race and class make them most likely to be able to afford it, and their spouses (McHugh, 2000).

Ultimately, whatever the activities, the under- lying goal is "not to age at all, or at least to min- imize the extent to which it is apparent that one is ageing" (Andrews, 1999, p.305). Yet, bodies have a sort of agency that we cannot control; we can only respond to it (Laz, 2003; Hurd, 1999). They wririkle, they become ill, they sag. Thus, the "not old" must monitor their bodies for signs of changes that can alter their status, and they then must react accordingly.

T H E A N T I - A G I N G INDUSTRY AND AGEISM

Those who offer products and services touted to forestall or reverse aging have been called swindlers, hucksters, and snake oil salesmen, but the industry is thriving, with profits in the tens of billions (U.S. Senate, Special Committee on Aging, 2001). When we combine the belief that we should control aging with industry promises of slovmg or altering the aging process, the pres- sure to not "look old" increases exponentially:

In a modern world in which the body is a symbol of self-expression, is it likely that older people want to present themselves as lacking in self-con- trol, as diseased? There may not yet be a cure for old age, but there are numerous opportunities available for alleviation of many of the symptoms. Not to resist signs of physical decay may be per- ceived as evidence of moral decline. (Jones and Pugh, 2005, pp.254-5)

But the anti-aging industry does not combat ageism. Instead, it reflects and reshapes ageism—reinforcing the belief that old age is repugnant and promising relief to those who can pay enough.

Advertisements present old men as poten- tially manly but in need of consumer regimens to remain so (Katz 2001/2002). To maintain sta- tus in relation to younger men, aging male bod- ies must "play hard" and "stay hard" (Calasanti and King, forthcoming). That is, to remain "not old" men must work as hard at consumption as they presumably did at production in younger years. Sexual performance is also a crucial "com- ponent of successfiil aging" (Katz and Marshall 2003, p.7), and the link between continued sex- ual functioning, manhood, and individual resis- tance to aging appears throughout the and-aging industry. Not only do we see widespread adver- tising for chemical interventions such as side- nafil (Viagra), but we also see and-aging gurus like Karlis UUis, author ofAffe Right and Super T (for testosterone), who proclaims on his web- site, "Good, ethical sex is the best and-aging medicine we have" (2005; http://www.agingpn vent.com/flash/index.html).

By contrast, the emphasis for aging women is predominantly on appearance. To be sure, the aging woman also needs to be acdve, demon- strating that she is healthy and thus not old. Still, her status is based on the extent to which she is able to be attracdve to men her age. She is not supposed to compete with aging men in playing or staying hard any more than she was supposed to do so at earlier ages.

Finally, despite the emphasis on individual accountability, "choices regarding food and nutridon . . . are embedded in circumstances (e.g., culture, agribusiness, and inequality) beyond individual control." The presence of and-aging goods and services are only part of the picture; we are always constrained in some ways from totally "making" our bodies as we might like (Laz, 2003, p.507). Resisting aging is thus shaped by inequalides in terms of both how one seeks to shape one's body and, uld- mately, the ability to even do so.

CONCLUSION

Popular belief holds that ageism will decline as baby boomers age and re-shape their nodons of aging bodies. Through their appearance and acdvides, and often with the help of the and- aging industry, aging people increasingly chal- lenge the stereotype in which old age equals

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disease and decline. However, as inspiring as images of acdve elders may be, their impact on ageism is illusory. Rather than countering ageism itself, this movement toward prolonging mid- dle age, abetted by the and-aging industry, sim- ply forestalls the point at which individuals' bodies become marked as old and hence deserv- ing of exclusion. To be sure, health promodon is worthwhile at all ages. But there is a differ- ence between trying to achieve health and try- ing to be "not old." Wrinkles tell us nothing of one's heart function. And the emphasis on expensive recreation has as much to do with middle-aged status as with health. From this standpoint, then, the push to discipline our bod- ies is a double-edged sword. It doesn't eradi- cate ageism, but instead prompts people to expend increasing amounts of dme, money, and effort into being "not old." Because this venture is doomed to failure as bodies will age, it increases both the burden of acdvity and our guilt for having the bodies that we have, e o

Tmi Calasanti, Ph.D., is professor, Department of Sociology, Vir^finia Tech University, Blacbbur£[.

R E F E R E N C E S

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Twigg, J. 2004. "The Body, Gender, and Age: Fem- inist Insights in Social Gerontologyf'/oMnwi/ of Aging Studies 1% (i): 59-̂ 73.

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