Contextualizing older women’s body images: Time dimensions, multiple reference groups, and age codings of appearance

ABSTRACT

The article sheds light on older women’s body images and problematizes assumptions that women’s aging is more painful and shameful than men’s aging since men are not expected to live up to youthful beauty norms, the so-called double standard of aging hypothesis. Based on 12 qualitative interviews with women from the age of 75 from the Swedish capital area, I argue that older women have access to a double perspective of beauty, which means that they can relate to both youthful and age-related beauty norms. The results also illustrate that women’s body image is created in a context where previous body images are central and that this time perspective can contribute toward a positive body image. Further, the results show how age codings of appearance-related qualities create a narrow framework for older women’s body images and point to the benefits of shifting the analytical focus toward a material-semiotic body where corporeality and discourse are seen as interwoven.

KEYWORDS:

• Age coding
• beauty norms
• body appearance
• body dissatisfaction
• body image
• body satisfaction
• double standard of aging
• embodied aging
• gendered aging
• material-semiotic body
• reference groups
• women’s aging