Alexandra Korotchenko

Aging and the Body: A Review.

Dans cet article, nous examinons les recherches socioculturelles existantes et la théorie concernant le corps vieillissant. En particulier, nous examinons l’image du corps et la littérature de l’incarnation et discutons de ce qui est connu de la façon dont les aînés perçoivent et sentent l’expérience de leur corps vieillissants. Nous analysons comment l’image du corps est influencée par l’âge, la culture, l’origine ethnique, le sexe, l’état de santé, les préferences sexuelles, et la classe sociale. En outre, nous avons élaboré de façon critique la littérature comme mode de réalisation qui a trait aux expériences de la maladie, la sexualité, la gestion quotidienne du corps vieillissante, le travail avec l’apparence et l’identité incarnée. En présentant les principales conclusions, les débats théoriques, et les divergences de fond qui sont présentes dans la recherche et dans la théorie de l’image corporelle et l’incarnation, nous avons identifié les lacunes dans la littérature et avons prévu des axes d’enquête requises à l’avenir. In this article, we examine the existing sociocultural research and theory concerned with the aging body. In particular, we review the body image and embodiment literatures and discuss what is known about how older adults perceive and experience their aging bodies. We analyse how body image is shaped by age, culture, ethnicity, gender, health status, sexual preference, and social class. Additionally, we critically elucidate the embodiment literature as it pertains to illness experiences, sexuality, the everyday management of the aging body, appearance work, and embodied identity. By outlining the key findings, theoretical debates, and substantive discrepancies within the body image and embodiment research and theory, we identify gaps in the literature and forecast future, much-needed avenues of investigation.

Shades of grey: to dye or not to dye one's hair in later life

ABSTRACT This article examines older womens perceptions of grey, white and coloured hair. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71–94 years (mean 79), we elucidate the womens attitudes towards and reasons for dyeing or not dyeing their hair. The majority of our participants disparaged the appearance of grey hair, which they equated with ugliness, dependence, poor health, social disengagement and cultural invisibility. The women were particularly averse to their own grey hair, and many suggested that other womens grey hair was acceptable, if not attractive. At the same time, half of the women liked the look of snowy white hair, which they associated with attractiveness in later life as well as with goodness and purity. While one-third of the women had begun to dye their hair in their youth so as to appear more fashionable, two-thirds continued to dye their hair in later life so as to mask their grey hair and their chronological age. The women suggested that they used hair dye to appear more youthful and to resist ageist stereotypes associated with older women. We discuss the findings in relation to previous research concerning older womens hair, the concept of doing gender, and theories pertaining to ageism.

Negotiating Vulnerabilities: How Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions Interact with Physicians

La littérature concernant les interactions entre les patients et les médecins a largement ignoré les points de vue des personnes âgées souffrant de comorbidités multiples. Cette étude, avec des données recueillies à partir d’entretiens approfondis avec 16 hommes et 19 femmes qui ont eu une moyenne de six affections chroniques, a porté sur la façon dont les participants ont perçus et vécus les soins fournis par leurs médecins de soins primaires. Les participants ont suggéré que les médecins qui soignent les patients atteints de maladies chroniques multiples devraient être minutieux, prête à “gate-keeping,” fiables et ouvert à différents styles de prise de décision. Cependant, nombreux participants à l’étude ont perçu qu’ils recevaient des soins inadéquats en raison de faiblesses personnelles de leurs médecins, les contraintes de consultations médicales, et l’âgisme sociétal. Par conséquent, beaucoup de participants, surtout les femmes, ont utilisé des diverses stratégies pour maximiser les soins reçus et pour gérer les impressions des médecins à leur egard comme dignes patients. Nos résultats suggèrent que les patients âgés atteints de morbidités multiples perçoivent que leur besoins de santé ne sont pas suffisamment satisfaits. The literature on patient-physician interactions has largely ignored the perspectives of older adults with multiple morbidities. Featuring in-depth interview data from 16 men and 19 women with an average of six chronic conditions, this study focused on how participants perceived and experienced the care provided by their primary care physicians. Participants suggested that physicians caring for patients with multiple chronic conditions should be thorough, amenable to gate keeping, trustworthy, and open to different decision-making styles. However, many study participants perceived that they received inadequate care due to the personal failings of their physicians, constraints of medical consultations, and societal ageism. Consequently, many of the participants, especially the women, employed various strategies to maximize the care they received and manage their physicians’ impressions of them as worthy patients. Our findings suggest that elderly patients with multiple morbidities perceive that their health needs are not being adequately met.

Power mobility and the built environment: the experiences of older Canadians

In this article, we employ data from qualitative interviews with 15 men and 14 women aged 51–92 to examine older Canadian adults’ experiences of utilizing power wheelchairs and motorized scooters in the context of the built environment. When functioning properly and utilized within accessible spaces, power mobility devices provided many of the participants with the autonomy they desired. However, the features and functionality of power mobility equipment also constrained participants’ abilities to negotiate their surroundings and maintain valued social roles and physical activities. Participants’ experiences of power mobility technology as enabling or disabling were further complicated by the organization of the built environment, as the men and women described encountering various barriers to mobility within both public and private spaces. We discuss our findings in relation to the extant literature concerning the social and spatial construction of disability.

Older women and suntanning: the negotiation of health and appearance risks.

This paper examines older womens experiences and perceptions of sunbathing, sun avoidance, and suntanned appearances. Using data from in-depth interviews with 36 women aged 71 to 94, we elucidate the motivations behind the womens sunbathing practices. Specifically, we explore how the women responded to the health and appearance risks associated with exposure to and avoidance of ultraviolet radiation as well as extant feminine beauty norms. The majority of women put their experiences of sunbathing in an emergent historical context. Although most of the women suggested that suntanned appearances were indicative of health and beauty, sunbathers tended to downplay their health risks by distancing themselves from those they considered to be most at risk, namely tanning bed users and individuals who acquired overly dark suntans. Sunbathers also emphasised the benefits of sun exposure for adequate vitamin D absorption. In contrast, the women who did not suntan tended to have experienced negative health and appearance consequences from their past sunbathing practices. Thus, these women emphasised the importance of future health over immediate appearance dividends. We discuss our findings in relation to the extant research on suntanning and the literature pertaining to health, risk, and beauty work.

‘I know it exists … but I haven't experienced it personally’: older Canadian men's perceptions of ageism as a distant social problem

ABSTRACT This paper examines how older men perceive, experience and internalise ageist prejudice in the context of their everyday lives. We draw on in-depth interviews with 29 community-dwelling Canadian men aged 65–89. Although one-third of our participants were unfamiliar with the term ageism, the majority felt that age-based discrimination was prevalent in Canadian society. Indicating that they themselves had not been personally subjected to ageism, the men considered age-based discrimination to be a socially distant problem. The men explained their perceived immunity to ageism in terms of their youthful attitudes and active lifestyles. The men identified three groups who they considered to be particularly vulnerable to age-based discrimination, namely women, older workers and frail elders residing in institutions. At the same time, the majority of our participants had internalised a variety of ageist and sexist stereotypes. Indeed, the men assumed that later life was inevitably a time of physical decline and dependence, and accepted as fact that older adults were grumpy, poor drivers, unable to learn new technologies and, in the case of older women, sexually unattractive. In this way, a tension existed between the mens assertion that ageism did not affect their lives and their own internalisation of ageist stereotypes. We consider our findings in relation to the theorising about ageism and hegemonic masculinity.

Canadian power mobility device users' experiences of ageing with mobility impairments

ABSTRACT In this article, we draw upon interviews with 14 men and 15 women aged 51–92 to examine the embodied experiences of Canadian power mobility device users. In particular, we investigate how individuals ageing with mobility impairments perceived and experienced the practical impacts and symbolic cultural connotations of utilising a power mobility device. Our findings reveal that those participants who had begun to use their power mobility devices later in life were dismayed by and apprehensive about the significance of their diminishing physical abilities in the context of the societal privileging of youthful and able bodies. At the same time, the participants who had used a power mobility device from a young age were fearful of prospective bodily declines, and discussed the significance and consequences of being unable to continue to operate their power mobility devices autonomously in the future. We consider the ways in which the participants attempted to manage, mitigate and reframe their experiences of utilising power mobility devices in discriminatory environments. We discuss our findings in relation to on-going theoretical debates pertaining to the concepts of ‘biographical disruption’ and the third and fourth ages.

Doing Beauty: Women, Ageing and Identity

Women are continuously bombarded with images of idealized feminine beauty that privilege young, slim, toned and healthy bodies (Bordo, 2003; Gimlin, 2002; Wolf, 1991). While youth is equated with sexual desirability, health and femininity, oldness is associated with asexuality, poor health, social invisibility and a loss of physical attractiveness and social currency (Bytheway, 1995; Calasanti and Slevin, 2001; Holstein, 2001–02). Existing age relations culminate in the assigning of social resources, opportunities and value based on one’s age and ability to approximate the youthful ideal (Calasanti, 2005; Calasanti and Slevin, 2001). Thus, women experience enormous pressure to engage in beauty work in order to stave off the appearance changes that accompany ageing and the concomitant loss of social currency. Indeed, from an early age, women learn that the effective and appropriate ‘“doing” of gender’ is a ‘routine, methodical and recurring accomplishment’ (West and Zimmerman, 1987: 126) that requires ever more intensive beauty work (Bartky, 1990; Bordo, 2003; Davis, 1997). Examining how women do gender and femininity through beauty work, feminist researchers have explored the use and experience of dieting and exercise (Bordo, 2003; Brumberg, 1997; Gimlin, 2002; Hesse-Biber, 1996), hair care (Furman, 1997; Gimlin, 2002; Hurd Clarke and Korotchenko, 2010; Weitz, 2001), make-up (Beausoleil, 1994; Hurd Clarke and Bundon, 2009), fashion (Jeffreys, 2005; Hurd Clarke, Griffin and Maliha, 2009; see also Chapter 9 this volume), sun tanning (Hurd Clarke and Korotchenko, 2009) and surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures (Davis, 1995; 2003; Hurd Clarke, Repta and Griffin, 2007; Hurd Clarke and Griffin, 2007; 2008).