Abstract
In Facing Age Laura Hurd Clarke masterfully demonstrates that the meanings women attribute to aging, physical and social reality, and cultural gender norms are influenced by their chronological age, genetics, and social location in culture and history. There is no better time for this book than now, as society is on the cusp of a blossoming of the number of older women. With shifting demographics and an aging of society as a whole, Facing Age is an important contribution to understanding the nexus of social norms related to age and gender.
To support her key points, Hurd Clarke succinctly summarizes the current literature on women and aging, and weaves together the findings of five qualitative research projects she conducted between 1997 and 2007. This is a strong model, as she uses women’s and physician’s own voices to clearly illustrate the current state of women and aging today. Across those 10 years she logged hundreds of hours of interviews, including interviews with women over age 60 about their perception of their bodies; interviews with women aged 50 to 70 about nonsurgical cosmetic procedures; interviews with women over age 70 about their body image and beauty work practices; and interviews with physicians who deliver aesthetic medicine about their perception of nonsurgical procedures. She also conducted a content analysis of antiaging print advertisements in popular magazines. The unifying effect of these five diverse research projects is an articulate, sound case informed by multiple perspectives and divergent voices.
Applying her research findings, she tackles older women’s social and cultural norms on three fronts: women’s perceptions of their body image as they age, physician’s perceptions of nonsurgical procedures, and the media’s presentation of images of older women. Across the life course, each and every day, women experience a tenuous relationship with their body image because of prevailing cultural gender norms; however, as women age, the pressures to combat aging and embrace such norms become heightened and lead to internal conflict. Hurd Clarke found that older women both perceive and clearly articulate their displeasure with their body image, specifically their weight and age-related physical changes. The women expressed the challenges they faced daily to attempt to continue to live up to cultural norms, even for women who were intellectually aware of cultural critiques of these norms. For these women, the social reality of body norms was ever-present and conflictual.
Given these normative conflicts and cultural pressures regarding body image, women must make choices about the extent to which they will embrace antiaging procedures to ameliorate their concerns. From the physician’s viewpoint, these techniques are consumer-driven and a logical, scientific response to the negative aspects of aging. For the women Hurd Clarke interviewed, nonsurgical procedures that address the outer shell of the body were more acceptable than invasive procedures and allowed them to meet the cultural expectations of beauty. However, surgical procedures also create a divide between those who have the means to access them and those who do not. Hurd Clarke offers an extremely interesting and thought-provoking discussion about the socioeconomic roots of utilization of antiaging procedures and how, as science develops new ways to address the perceived negative aspects of aging, the divide between those who visibly demonstrate their age and those who do not will grow.
In addition, Hurd Clarke layered on the role of the media in promulgating negative views of women getting older. The advertisements in the magazines she examined further supported the case that society exhibits unrealistic expectations for older women and exudes overt and covert pressure to adhere to such standards. Her interviewees also expressed their disdain for a societal focus on youthfulness and body image.
Hurd Clarke makes a salient and cogent case for a complex experience when it comes to women, aging, and body image. Women’s perceptions span from focusing on the negative aspects of age-related changes as they are culturally perceived to mitigating some of this negativity by focusing on other issues, like health and abilities. All the while, women are bombarded daily with nuanced challenges of gendered body work as the age. I highly recommend Facing Age for its deep understanding of the multitude of issues women face as they age, as well as its innovative methodological approach. Hurd Clarke provides much food for thought as readers will be drawn to question their own ideas about aging, cultural norms, and gender.