Experiencing older age, gender, and the body: Challenging and reinforcing ‘positive ageing’ discourses

The discourses of ‘positive ageing’, ‘successful ageing’, ‘productive ageing’ and ‘ageing well’, assert an expectation that older people will exercise self-responsibility in maintaining (or improving) their health, independence, productivity, and functionality (Asquith 2009). Such constructions of ageing challenge traditional constructions of ageing, where older age was associated with decline and social withdrawal. While this appears to challenge negative attitudes towards ageing, positive ageing is based on a dualistic structure that serves to marginalise and stigmatise ageing that is not ‘positive’ and reproduces ageism by privileging youthfulness. Importantly, ‘positive ageing’ discourses are also intimately connected to the body, as witnessed through the association of a youthful appearance with beauty, personal wellbeing, and health within consumer culture (Featherstone 1991). Drawing on empirical research, I explore the extent to which older adult’s narrations of their body replicate or challenge positive ageing discourses. This reveals that while older women hold concerns for their appearance, older men mostly focus on their physical performance. As such, gendered ideas about the body, as well as their understandings of ‘successful ageing’, influence how older adults experience and talk about their ‘ageing body’.