| dc.description.abstract | By reducing older Americans to grandparents or senior citizens, their impact on society is viewed as less substantial than that of younger or working-age adults. Older adult body image is highly understudied, even in a society in which cultural and moral worth are based upon the display of youthfulness and adherence to definitions of masculine and feminine body type ideals. While it is oftentimes assumed that conformity to society’s beauty standards relax with age, previous research suggests that many older Americans struggle to reconcile narrowly defined body ideals with the reality of their aging bodies. To advance qualitative research on body image, I conducted 31 in-depth semi-structured interviews asking older men and women, age 65 and older, to discuss their experiences with their aging bodies in everyday social interaction including topics such as beauty routine, family, the media, and health. In order to understand the intersection of age and gender on older adult body image, I address two main research questions: 1) How do older men and women currently feel about their bodies, and why? 2) How do these views differ by gender? I find that older men and women engage in beauty work to “do” gender, but they simultaneously no longer feel like they have to do those things as compared to earlier life course phases. Additionally, I identify three differing, yet overlapping ways in which these men and women felt about their bodies: satisfied, dissatisfied, and content with imperfections. The unique social perspective of older Americans provides a landscape to demonstrate the distinctive impact of age and gender on body image. | |
