Introduction
I chose this article because it examines the fundamental issues in contemporary society. This is so because it examines the cultural ideologies that degrade the old age in society. These cultural norms are motivated by the media, which attribute the female body with consumer culture. Therefore, society should realize that aging is a sense of maturity and should embrace it as a Self-identities associated to the appearance and performance of the bodies. Similarly, aging should be based on feminist and gender ideologies because it cut across gender, race and class in various societies.
Summary
The article uses a feminist approach to explore aging body by analyzing formal interviews of 57 men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s. The authors focus on the intersectionality based on the interpretations and strategies these men and women employ to manage their aging bodies. Based on their aging bodily experiences, the article examines ageist idea about aging and being old. The authors explore how their thinking, which values youthfulness, shapes their aging experiences. The article analysis is based on three fundamental questions. First, it explores how ageism influences the ways in which these participants view their aging bodies. Second, it examines how strategies help these participants to manage their aging body. Third, the authors examine how social locations affect the participant’s views and strategies.
The purpose of the article was to explore the cultural ideologies that pervade in society surrounding aging people focusing especially on socially constructed ideas of ageist and sexism. The authors seek to makes make visible what is mainly invisible regarding the cultural norms which degrade old age in the society.
The article indicates that although the body has received great attention in recent decades, little is researched on the aging bodies. This is so because besides acting like age marker, the social genontologists have given little attention on how people experience its aging. They have researched on how body experiences in cases of disease and illness. The authors indicate that there is increasing importance of consumer culture because it highlights the growing salience of the body. They emphasize the use of media, which convey that to be young and beautiful is to have the most desirable form of cultural capital. For instance, taking care of one’s physical appearance has become a moral vital in Western societies. In these societies, self-control and will power are attributed to muscular, trim, fit bodies while overweight bodies are attributed with laziness and lack of control. Therefore, the consumer culture has made the body primary in managing the old age features. For instance, the cultural strategies used to manage the old age include dieting, exercising and cosmetic surgeries.
On the issue of gendered bodies and intersectionality, the authors engage in the empathetic analysis. This is so because they show how people are being discriminated based on gender, race and class. For instance, the article argues that people experiences spoiled identities from diverse social locations and association to a matrix of domination. They argue that to figure how locations shape embodied experiences is challenging. Meanwhile, gender plays a significant role in aging experiences. This is s because men and women experience ageist pressures to keep the youthful bodies, but face cultural weight in diverse magnitude and forms. While the old women’s bodies are viewed as failing follow the feminine ideals, old men’s bodies are seen as eminent. Therefore, in case women fail to do make up they are seen as moral failures and lose cultural significance, which is completely reviling and stigmatizing.
Since most researchers use middle class to demonstrate how culture can shape the response to one’s body appearance, it is hard to recognize how class influences the body image. However, only small data that indicate that class and gender intersect to ascertain that middle class women are mostly concerned with body image and likely to be dissatisfied by their appearance. Therefore, the class influences the ability of people to do make up required to have ideal body. This can happen even if one is a man or woman, black or white, homosexual or heterosexual. This is so because the body is currently an igniter for evidently showing class diversity. Other researchers indicate that the dominance of class treat the body as an aesthetic while those in lower class have a greater chance of treating the body as a functioning instrument.
According to authors the racial diversity in response to the body are also selective. This is so because there is evidence that gender and race interact in a complex manner. For instance, black men are seen to vest in body image than white men and the race group that have a positive view about body image. However, little has been done on class interacts with sexual orientation to influence body appearance. Recent research indicates that gay culture portrays youthful and hegemonic masculinity than heterosexual male culture. Other researchers indicate gender is a more salient predictor of body acceptance and disaffection than sexual orientation.
There is a lot to be done besides what is highlighted in this research. This is so because the authors give room for further research on middle-aged participants to explore how their aging experiences can vary from older generations emulated in this research.
Quotations analysis
I found the “profound cultural silence” to be a vital quotation. This is so because aging is attributed with cultural norms and their physical appearances are ignored. This should not happen because aging is linked to meaning people ascribe to their aging bodies.
Another quotation I found essential is “aging successfully.” This is so because aging should not be seen as a disease that can be cured with makeup, but as a moral showing healthy body.
In additional, “ appearance junkies”, is another quotation that show how culture tend to degrade old age by using visual appearance such as make up. By use of visual appearance, societies tend to diminish maturity appearance of the body.
Finally, another vital quotation is “passing”, which indicate how old people tend to manage the stigmatization in society by using strategies that can make them look younger their chronological age.
