"We are the future": Advant-aged women speak-out through spoken word poetry

This study aims to investigate women between the ages of 50 and 70 who write and perform spoken word poetry, through which they wish to lead positive social change, by turning the culture of silence into open discourse. This period represents a new phase of life. These women are at an "in-between" phase of being no longer young but not yet old and are between life roles. This is a new age group that has not yet been studied. We argue that this stage of life requires a new term. The term chosen for this study is advant-age because it implies the advantages and opportunities that this period of life affords. Although this group of women is growing in relation to the general population, the ageism and sexism they experience are increasing, creating a gradual process of social exclusion and reduction in their agency. Spoken Word Poetry (SWP) is written on a page but performed live in front of an audience. It is a poetic piece that includes rhythm, rhyme, and sometimes humor, which help convey complex messages with finesse. The importance of the current research lies in revealing a new and unresearched social phenomenon that has been developing in Israel in recent years: Advant-aged women are discussing issues that society usually silences, using methods that traditionally have been associated with younger groups. Through SWP, advant-aged women are enabling the possibility of raising these issues for public discussion and creating an opportunity for social change.

Aging as Adaptation

In traditional gerontological terms, adaptation is usually understood as the production of physical aids to mitigate the impairment effects caused by age-related disabilities, or as those alterations organizations need to make under the concept of reasonable adjustment to prevent age discrimination (in the UK, e.g., age has been a protected characteristic under the Equality Act since 2010). This article will be the first to examine aging in relation to theories of adaptation within cultural studies and the humanities. It is thus an interdisciplinary intervention within the field of cultural gerontology and cultural theories of adaptation. Adaptation studies in cultural studies and the humanities have moved away from fidelity criticism (the issue of how faithful an adaptation is to its original) toward thinking of adaptation as a creative, improvisational space. We ask if theories of adaptation as understood within cultural studies and the humanities can help us develop a more productive and creative way of conceptualizing the aging process, which reframes aging in terms of transformational and collaborative adaptation. Moreover, for women in particular, this process of adaptation involves engagement with ideas of women's experience that encompass an adaptive, intergenerational understanding of feminism. Our article draws on interviews with the producer and scriptwriter of the Representage theater group's play My Turn Now. The script for the play is adapted from a 1993 coauthored book written by a group of 6 women who were then in their 60s and 70s, who founded a networking group for older women.

"Stop acting like a child - you're immature": The reversed ageism of practicing self-injury as adult women and the reclaiming of our bodies

The practice of self-injury is considered deviant and pathological, and the stereotype of a self-injuring individual is a young, white, middle-class woman. By using an autoethnographic approach, I elucidate how four women and I, aged 35-51, with experiences of self-injury in adulthood, use, internalize, and speak through dominant discourses of self-injury. The practice of self-injury is an embodied one, and self-injury is stereotypically associated with immature, irresponsible, and emotionally unstable young women. As adult women who self-injure, we use and speak through this representation, which, to some extent, affects our self-image and identity as we are often "misrecognized" as full partners in everyday social interaction or when we represent our professions. Still, we resist the idea of self-injury as stemming from immaturity, and we work to reclaim our bodies and agency from the medicalized, ageist assumptions of the practice of self-injury. By doing this, we can also rewrite and transform the meaning of this practice. Our self-inflicted wounds or scars do not define who we are nor our level of maturity, intelligence, and attractiveness. Thus, we acknowledge that we have the right to our own bodies and what we do to that body.

From ethical approval to an ethics of care: Considerations for the inclusion of older adults in ethnographic research from the perspective of a 'humanisation of care framework'

A deeper understanding of care demands the methodological finesse of qualitative research: we must observe, listen, and witness to expose what matters to care recipients. In this paper, we - a team of three: one early-career researcher and two supervisors - reflect on our experiences of designing and then seeking ethics approval for ethnographic research on care for older adults, many of whom demonstrate a lack of capacity to consent to research. Viewing experiences of well-being and dignity as embedded within interpersonal negotiations, this study privileges care home residents' daily life, looking to stories and observations of daily life to reveal the complexities of well-being in the care home setting. This paper emphasizes the importance of using qualitative research methods to gain a deeper understanding of care practices, particularly in the context of care for older adults with varying cognitive capacities. By privileging the daily life experiences of care home residents and employing the logic of process consent, we aim to include the voices of all participants, not just those who can provide written informed consent. However, obtaining ethics approval for this type of research presents several challenges, requiring careful negotiation and the inclusion of consultee advice. This paper highlights the tensions between procedural ethics and the need for better inclusion of vulnerable populations in ethnographic research on care. By addressing these challenges, we can move towards a more context-sensitive and humanised approach to research ethics that values the lived experiences of care recipients.

[Conditions of life or intersectionality? Gerontology from a critical feminist perspective]

Using the conditions-of-life-approach through the lens of social politics and sociology, the categories of age(ing) and gender are viewed as structurally horizontal categories of society depicting socially constructed allocation criteria. Therefore, subjective perceptions of the conditions of life of particularly disadvantaged groups, such as elderly women or elderly women with a migration background, can be recorded as well. This article raises the question, if increasingly preferred concepts of intersectionality are positively contributing to gender research from a gerontological and feminist perspective.

Reconstructing the Social Image of Older Women and Ageing: The Transformative Power of the Narrative Set in the Local Context

This case study reveals that age-related areas are the least desirable professional future options for many university students in social work degree programmes. One of the possible causes is the negative social labelling of older age, especially pronounced in respect of older women. Additionally, there is a poor and limited educational approach towards later life and growing older inside and outside the educational settings. This article focuses on the social construction of older age from gender and double theoretical perspectives. In particular, it centers on the pillars of education and profiguration. For educational and analytical purposes, these aspects are approached in the classroom setting from a critical perspective by using the in-depth reading of a book that is set in the local context, in particular, the city of Lleida (Spain). It presents the results of the content analysis and reflections written by 170 first-year university students taking a degree course in social work, and the outcomes of the subsequent classroom discussions with the author of the book. The study results show that better knowledge about the complexities of ageing and later life can lead to the reconstruction of the students’ viewpoints about older age, help foster critical thinking, and defy age-related stereotypes, beliefs, and prejudices.

Spotlight on Age: An Overlooked Construct in Medical Sociology

Medical sociology gives limited attention to age-a surprising observation given the aging of the population and the fact that age is among the strongest determinants of health. We examine this issue through an analysis of articles published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior (JHSB) and Sociology of Health & Illness (SHI) between 2000 and 2019. One in 10 articles focused on age or aging, with attention increasing over the period. However, the journals differed. More JHSB than SHI articles addressed it, but fewer focused on the latest life stages when frailty often appears. We discuss three dimensions of age that would enrich medical sociology: as a dimension of inequality akin to race and gender with similar health effects, as an institution interacting with the medical one, and as an identity-again, akin to race and gender-through which people process their experiences in ways that affect health.

Feminist approach to geriatric care: comprehensive geriatric assessment, diversity and intersectionality

Despite being a collection of holistic assessment tools, the comprehensive geriatric assessment primarily focuses on the social category of age during the assessment and disregards for example gender. This article critically reviews the standardized testing process of the comprehensive geriatric assessment in regard to diversity-sensitivity. I show that the focus on age as social category during the assessment process might potentially hinder positive outcomes for people with diverse backgrounds of older patients in relation to other social categories, such as race, gender or socio-economic background and their influence on the health of the patient as well as the assessment and its outcomes. I suggest that the feminist perspective of intersectionality with its multicategorical approach can enhance the diversity-sensitivity of the comprehensive geriatric assessment, and thus improve the treatment of older patients and their quality of life. By suggesting an intersectional-based approach, this article contributes to debates about justice and diversity in medical philosophy and advocates for the normative value of diversity in geriatric medicine.

Providing Care Is Self-Care: Towards Valuing Older People's Care Provision in Global Economies

Older people's care provision is structurally undervalued, posing a threat to social connectedness and healthy aging. Thus, the question arises of how older people's care provision can be valued in diverse economies. By addressing this question, this article proposes a novel perspective by shedding light on the value of contributions older people provide to society, which in turn promote their own well-being. By highlighting evolutionary and proximal motives for older people to provide care, this article advances the theoretical understanding of the benefits of caregiving in the global aging context, going beyond previous successful aging approaches. These new directions aim to center older people's needs while accounting for their care provisions to fruitfully inform policymaking. Finally, the main challenge remaining for future work is to create adequate and valuable opportunities for older people to provide care as Homines curans.

Self-Perceptions of Aging: Factorial Structure and Invariance by Gender

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Self-perceptions of aging (SPA)-the appraisals people place on their own aging processes-predict well-being in later life. Researchers are increasingly hypothesizing that the overarching construct of SPA is comprised of two factors-positive SPA and negative SPA-and that SPA are gendered. The purpose of this study was to empirically test the hypothesized two-factor structure of SPA and to analyze how the two-factor structure varies between men and women.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Data come from the 2012 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (N = 7,029; Mage = 68.08), which includes an 8-item SPA scale. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess (i) the positive SPA and negative SPA two-factor solution for the 8-item scale and (ii) whether the two-factor solution had configural, strong, or weak invariance across men and women.

RESULTS

CFAs indicated a two-factor latent structure of the 8-item scale, with SPA being comprised of both a positive SPA factor and a negative SPA factor. The latent structure was the same for both men and women.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Results suggest that SPA is a broader construct made up of positive and negative latent factors. Researchers should consider separating the SPA by positive and negative factors to analyze how each factor uniquely shapes health. Moreover, the two-factor solution was equivalent across men and women, possibly because of the generalized nature of the 8-item scale. Researchers can use the 8-item scale similarly for men and women and should continue to elucidate possible gender differences in SPA.

‘I've never given it a thought’: older men's experiences with and perceptions of ageism during interactions with physicians

The subjective experience of ageism among older men has received little research attention. This study examines older Canadian men's experiences with and perceptions of ageism during interactions with physicians. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 21 men aged 55 years and over. The findings indicate a seeming lack of awareness of ageism among many, and many did not believe ageism was likely to occur during patient–physician interaction. Negative stereotyping of older patients was common. A large majority of the participants reported that they had not personally experienced ageism during a medical encounter, nor were they concerned about it. Numerous rationales were proffered as explanations of why a particular participant had not experienced ageism and who was more likely to be a target.

Understanding diversity in later life through images of old age

This article aims to enhance the conceptual debate on diversity in old age by exploring the interplay of diversity in later life and images of old age. We argue that the analysis of images of old age on the micro-level is a fruitful methodology in order to unravel the meaning of diversity in later life. Drawing on findings from qualitative research in Berlin, we explore how new and diverse imaginations, experiences and lifestyles of old age emerge. The conceptual focus on images of old age enables us to investigate further what diversity in later life comprises and how it simultaneously fosters the genesis of new images of old age. The manifold new images we found in our research suggest that prevalent societal discourses about old age on the macro-level are rather deceptive and represent mostly stereotypes such as ‘active agers’ or ‘frail and dependent elders’. We offer three explanations why alternative images of old age are currently barely present in public discourse: (a) the actors transmitting images of age; (b) the institutionalisation of the images; and (c) the challenge to communicate complexity. We conclude by suggesting that images of old age are a promising starting point to explore and make visible both the diversity of social groups within the older generation as well as the heterogeneity of older individuals.

[Aging from an intersectional perspective : Suggestions for a multidimensional conceptualization of intersectional aging research]

Even a cursory view on the debate about intersectionality reveals that this is not a coherent theory or a uniform approach to the investigation of multiple inequalities. Instead openness and ambiguity are described as central characteristics of the concept, which result from the diversity of the reference theories and the multidimensionality of the categories of difference and relationships of inequality to be examined. In this article the question as to whether an intersectional perspective can provide new insights for gerontological research is explored.

Las mujeres y el envejecimiento en la investigación social (1950-2018)

Resumen: Presentamos un estado del arte sobre los estudios del envejecimiento femenino en las ciencias sociales anglófonas e hispanohablantes, indagando cómo las mujeres mayores fueron representadas en estas investigaciones y buscando captar las contribuciones del feminismo a estos estudios. Revisaremos la emergencia de los debates gerontológicos sobre el envejecimiento (1950-1970) y la influencia de los posicionamientos feministas en los trabajos sociológicos y antropológicos sobre el tema (1970-1990). Discutiremos los giros hacia la confluencia entre género y edad en los estudios sociales (1990-2000) y la contribución crítica latinoamericana en castellano, articulada alrededor del concepto de organización social de los cuidados (2000-2010). En las consideraciones finales, ofreceremos nuestras reflexiones sobre la construcción de una perspectiva feminista en los estudios del envejecimiento femenino.

Sexual Assault and Justice for Older Women: A Critical Review of the Literature

This article provides a critical review of current literature on the sexual assault of older women-including an exploration of the specific features and emotional and physical impacts of older women's experiences-and highlights current gaps and future directions for research, practice, and theory. A review of the literature indicates that older women constitute only a small proportion of victim/survivors. However, there is evidence to suggest that existing research underestimates the extent of this issue. Older women face particular barriers to disclosure and accessing the justice system, resulting in their experiences remaining hidden. Many of these barriers also contribute toward older women's experiences being ignored, dismissed, or downplayed by potential bystanders. These barriers are explored in depth in this article and include cultural context, ageism, cognitive and health impairments, and living in a residential care setting. Responding to, and preventing, the sexual assault of older women requires a tailored approach-and we currently lack sufficient insight to develop appropriate responses. In closing, this article considers how we might work toward achieving "justice" for older women victim/survivors.

The ambiguities of self-governance: Russian middle-aged middle-class women's reflections on ageing

In a youth-centred culture, where ageing is associated with physical and mental decline, investment in a youthful appearance promises access to socially valuable resources. The need for regular care for the self, primarily through consumption, constitutes part of the narrative of successful or positive ageing. Due to its emphasis on self-reliance and efforts to remain healthy, productive and youthful, the discourse of successful ageing has been seen as intersecting with a neoliberal rationality, or a shift of responsibility for risks associated with ageing from the state to the individual. While some authors criticise an emphasis on individual effort to maintain personal wellbeing for a lack of attention to structural factors, others view such an approach favourably as a way of transcending state paternalism. In this paper, I engage with the discourse of ‘responsibilisation’ drawing on the interviews with middle-aged, middle-class women from Moscow about their experiences of ageing. I employ the theoretical framework of ‘governmentality’ to demonstrate how the interviewed women's attempts to make sense of what it meant to age ‘appropriately’ within their milieus informed both their awareness of a need to improve and reinvent the self constantly through consumption in the context of post-Soviet Russian society, and their questioning of and resistance to this pressure.

Active Ageing, Pensions and Retirement in the UK

The ageing population has led to increasing concerns about pensions and their future sustainability. Much of the dominant policy discourse around ageing and pension provision over the last decade has focussed on postponing retirement and prolonging employment. These measures are central to productive notions of 'active ageing'. Initially the paper briefly sets out the pension developments in the UK. Then it introduces active ageing and active ageing policy, exploring its implications for UK pension provision. It demonstrates that a more comprehensive active ageing framework, which incorporates a life-course perspective, has the potential to assist the UK to respond to the challenges of an ageing population. In doing so it needs to highlight older people as an economic and social resource, and reduce barriers to older people's participation in society.

‘My opinion is that doctors prefer younger people’: older women, physicians and ageism

This study examines older women's views about and subjective experience of ageism during interactions with physicians. Views about and experience of sexism are also examined. Data were obtained from in-depth, face-to-face interviews conducted with 36 Canadian women 55 years and older. The findings indicate that older women believe ageism is likely to occur during medical encounters and are concerned about it. Few, however, claim to have personally experienced it. Contradicting the stereotype of the passive older patient, many participants were employing strategies to avoid becoming targets of ageism. Although there was some concern about sexism during medical encounters, in general, the women appeared to be less conscious of sexism than ageism.

Survival strategies of elderly women in Ngangelizwe Township, Mthatha, South Africa: Livelihoods, social networks and income

This study seeks to examine the critical issue of how the elderly women of Ngangelizwe, Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South Africa address the challenges they encounter in their attempts to provide for their needs and those of their dependants. These challenges include among others lack of education, access to resources, caring for their sick children suffering from AIDS related diseases as well as their orphaned grandchildren.

METHODS

In-depth interviews were held with 15 retired women above 60 years old who are also heads of households, receiving or not receiving state pension, and/or a child support grant.

RESULTS

The study reveals that friendship-based ties, social networks and their impact on the livelihoods, health, survival and social adjustment of the elderly women are essential components of their lives. The study also reports on the strategies they employ to alleviate poverty through their own and school-going age grandchildren's participation in income generating activities.

CONCLUSION

The study indicates that for most women, the inability to attain basic essentials of life leads to loss of self-dignity. Socio-economic factors such as low levels of education, unemployment, little or no income, poor access to resources, many dependants and looking after their children who are ill creates a situation where they operate within the "little opportunities" circle. The evidence in this study suggests that friendship-based ties, social groups, including social capital, pension grants, child support grants and remittances from their employed children help to mitigate some of the poverty experiences of the elderly women.

‘It's our turn to play’: performance of girlhood as a collective response to gendered ageism

In our society that values men over women and youth over old age, sexism and ageism intersect to erode women's status more rapidly and severely than men's. However, limited attention is given to women's responses to their devaluation, particularly collective efforts to either resist or accommodate dominant beliefs about ageing women. We examine membership in the Red Hat Society, an international organisation for middle-aged and older women, as a response to gendered ageism. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with members (N = 52), our analysis focuses on the group's ‘performance of girlhood’, which involves adopting children's social roles, dressing up and playing. We examine its resonance with a dominant cultural metaphor for old age as ‘second childhood’, illustrating how it not only provides opportunities for resistance to gendered ageism but also contributes to its entrenchment. The behaviours constitute a performative act that resists gendered ageism by increasing ageing women's visibility and asserting their right to leisure. However, its accommodative features reproduce inequality by valuing youth over old age and depicting older women as girls engaging in frivolous activities, which can be seen as obstructing social change.

Successful ageing: a historical overview and critical analysis of a successful concept

Since the late 1980s, the concept of 'successful ageing' has set the frame for discourse about contemporary ageing research. Through an analysis of the reception to John W. Rowe and Robert L. Kahn's launch of the concept of 'successful ageing' in 1987, this article maps out the important themes and discussions that have emerged from the interdisciplinary field of ageing research. These include an emphasis on interdisciplinarity; the interaction between biology, psycho-social contexts and lifestyle choices; the experiences of elderly people; life-course perspectives; optimisation and prevention strategies; and the importance of individual, societal and scientific conceptualisations and understandings of ageing. By presenting an account of the recent historical uses, interpretations and critiques of the concept, the article unfolds the practical and normative complexities of 'successful ageing'.

The appraisal of difference: critical gerontology and the active-ageing-paradigm

The article deals with the re-negotiation of old age in current times of flexible capitalism and its analysis by Critical Gerontologists who criticize this process as age denial and midlife-imperialism. Starting out from the instructive critique of active ageing and consumer-based anti-ageing strategies, rooted in the heterogeneous field of Critical Gerontology, the here presented contribution aims at critically reviewing and discussing this critique. The article exposes theoretical pitfalls that make this critique run into a dead-end, since old age tends to be homogenized and sometimes even naturalized within Critical Gerontology: Though certainly often unintended, the appreciation of old age as being positively different from midlife ends up with sheltering "old people" as "the others" from the impositions of active society. After elaborating on this difference perspective and discussing its problems, I will finally sketch some conceptual ideas, inspired by poststructuralist thinking, on how to overcome the fruitless dichotomy of imperialism/sameness ("they have to be like us") and difference ("they are the others").

Active and successful aging: a European policy perspective

Over the past two decades, "active aging" has emerged in Europe as the foremost policy response to the challenges of population aging. This article examines the concept of active aging and how it differs from that of "successful aging." In particular, it shows how active aging presents a more holistic, life course-oriented approach than successful aging. We provide a critical perspective on active aging too by, first, tracing its emergence in Europe and then showing how, in practice, it has been dominated by a narrow economic or productivist perspective that prioritizes the extension of working life. It has also been gender blind. Nonetheless, it is argued that an active aging approach has the potential to enable countries to respond successfully to the challenges of population aging because of its comprehensive focus and emphasis on societal as well as individual responsibility. Finally, we set out the basic principles that need to be followed if the full potential of active aging is to be achieved.

Successful aging and its discontents: a systematic review of the social gerontology literature

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to analyze the range of critiques of successful aging models and the suggestions for improvement as expressed in the social gerontology literature.

DESIGN AND METHODS

We conducted a systematic literature review using the following criteria: journal articles retrieved in the Abstracts in Social Gerontology, published 1987-2013, successful aging/ageing in the title or text (n = 453), a critique of successful aging models as a key component of the article. Sixty-seven articles met the criteria. Qualitative methods were used to identify key themes and inductively configure meanings across the range of critiques.

RESULTS

The critiques and remedies fell into 4 categories. The Add and Stir group suggested a multidimensional expansion of successful aging criteria and offered an array of additions. The Missing Voices group advocated for adding older adults' subjective meanings of successful aging to established objective measures. The Hard Hitting Critiques group called for more just and inclusive frameworks that embrace diversity, avoid stigma and discrimination, and intervene at structural contexts of aging. The New Frames and Names group presented alternative ideal models often grounded in Eastern philosophies.

IMPLICATIONS

The vast array of criteria that gerontologists collectively offered to expand Rowe and Kahn's original successful model is symptomatic of the problem that a normative model is by definition exclusionary. Greater reflexivity about gerontology's use of "successful aging" and other normative models is needed.

Age transcended: a semiotic and rhetorical analysis of the discourse of agelessness in North American anti-aging skin care advertisements

Drawing from a collection of over 160 North American print advertisements for anti-aging skin care products from January to December of 2009, this paper examines the discourse of agelessness, a vision of esthetic perfection and optimal health that is continually referred to by gerontologists, cultural theorists, and scientific researchers as a state of being to which humankind can aspire. Employing critical discourse analysis through the use of semiotics and visual rhetoric, this paper explores the means through which anti-aging skin care advertisements present to their viewers a particular object of desire, looking, more specifically, at how agelessness is presented as a way out and ultimate transcendence of age. Through the analytical tools of semiotics and visual rhetoric, four visions of agelessness are identified and explored in this paper: Agelessness as Scientific Purity, Agelessness as Genetic Impulse, Agelessness as Nature's Essence, and Agelessness as Myth. Whether found in the heights of scientific purity, the inner core of our genetic impulse, the depths of nature's essence, or whether agelessness itself has reached its own, untouchable, mythic status, the advertisements in this study represent one of the most pervasive vehicles through which our current vision(s) of ageless perfection are reflected, reinforced, and suspended in a drop of cream.

Aging silently

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to discuss the transforming effect of pursuing person centered ethnography using contemporary reflexive methods and a cultural traditions model on a researcher in late life. It attempts to show the usefulness of life history research as a lens through which to examine the complex ways people age. It adds to literature dealing with ethnographic studies of aging women and demonstrates personal narrative as a way to convey information. Lastly it demonstrates the value of studies pursued by researchers in old age, and illuminates aspects of ethnographic work when women interview women.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using a journey format, the paper uses personal narrative as a way to achieve its goals. The personal account is complemented by noting other ethnographic studies that have contributed to age studies literature, and it draws attention to the value of reflexivity in good ethnographic work as proposed by anthropologists Barbara Myerhoff and John Caughey.

Findings

– The paper points toward research institutions who study aging valuing ethnographic findings and making use of researchers in old age to engage in ethnographic studies. It points to the possibility that elders engaged in such research may strengthen their sense of self and empower them as they make a contribution to age studies.

Research limitations/implications

– This paper deals with the transformative power of engaging in reflexive life history research, especially as it is done by an ethnographer in late life. This freeing from customary cultural ways of thinking may be as beneficial to the researcher as life review or reminiscence. This should be explored further.

Originality/value

– The paper points to the idea, implicit not explicit, that an elder who engages in reflexive life history research that involves doing a self-ethnography, can benefit in ways similar to having engaged in life review or reminiscence. This is original.

Critical feminist gerontology: in the back room of research

The article takes a feminist approach to gerontology. It examines the stereotypes of ageism that derive from the relationship between culture and old age. It establishes the requirements for a type of research that reflects women's own experience of growing older, as well as the social construction of values related to women's old age. It focuses on the sociocultural features of this population, which faces old age with certain limitations, but also with unparalleled assets.

Skin anti-aging strategies

Skin aging is a complex biological process influenced by a combination of endogenous or intrinsic and exogenous or extrinsic factors. Because of the fact that skin health and beauty is considered one of the principal factors representing overall "well-being" and the perception of "health" in humans, several anti-aging strategies have been developed during the last years. It is the intention of this article to review the most important anti-aging strategies that dermatologists have nowadays in hand, including including preventive measurements, cosmetological strategies, topical and systemic therapeutic agents and invasive procedures.

Keeping your eye on the process: body image, older women, and countertransference

Research on body image and older women has grown in the past decade. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding body image, older women, and countertransference. This article provides 7 case examples of racially and ethnically diverse women over 60, drawn from MSW student and agency staff supervision, and participant feedback from a national conference on aging workshop. Themes related to loss and grief, adult daughter and aging mother issues, incest, anger, disability, personality disorders, phobic reactions, and shame are discussed. Recommendations and implications for social work practice, education and research are provided.

Aesthetic anti-ageing surgery and technology: women's friend or foe?

This study investigates women's attitudes about, and experiences of, aesthetic anti-ageing surgeries and technologies against the contextual backdrop of the growing commercialisation of medicine in the United States. Drawing from 44 intensive interviews with a spectrum of women between the ages of 47 and 76 who use, refuse, and are currently undecided about whether or not they will have or use aesthetic anti-ageing surgeries and technologies in the future, this study asks the following question: in what ways does the increasing availability, accessibility, advertising, and use of aesthetic anti-ageing surgeries and technologies interact with and inform women's perceptions and attitudes about growing older? Data analysis occurs in dialogue with the paradigms of successful ageing and agelessness and draws from, and contributes new readings of, contemporary cultural constructions of femininity.

Ravishing or ravaged: women's relationships with women in the context of aging and Western beauty culture

We undertook this narrative analysis study to explore the complexities of women's relationships with other women within the sociocultural milieu of beautyism and ageism. Using an open-ended narrative framework, four focus groups of women living in different regions throughout the U.S. were conducted and analyzed to identify thematic categories within and across group sessions. We discuss four of the six key themes discovered in response to the primary research question: How does beauty culture shape women's experiences of aging and their relationships with women of all ages? We conclude that Western idealized beauty standards exert a divisive impact on women's relationships with each other across the life span, negatively affecting their socioemotional well-being, especially in old age.