Forever ‘Becoming’? Negotiating Gendered and Ageing Embodiment in Everyday Life

Katy Pilcher and Wendy Martin
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Katy Pilcher: Aston University, UK
Wendy Martin: Brunel University London, UK

Sociological Research Online, 2020, vol. 25, issue 4, 698-717

Abstract: Drawing upon 62 participant-produced visual diaries and accompanying interview narratives, this article explores the significance of everyday body work for people in mid- to later life. Departing from previous work that has explored the intersections of gender and age in relation to a single embodied practice, this article highlights the salience of a myriad of bodily practices for the everyday ways that gender and ageing identities are constituted, specifically hair styling, beauty work, clothing, and dieting. We argue that women negotiate a gendered pressure to age well , which results in an in/visibility paradox, in which they are at one and the same time seen, but not seen. Consequently, we question whether women are thus forever ‘becoming’ – attempting to become embodied subjects, alongside subjecting to ‘becoming’ – aligning with normative discourses. The article examines the competing ways that ageing and gendered bodies are constructed, together with participants’ embodied resistance to negative normalising discourses.

Keywords: ageing; body work; embodiment; everyday life; gender; visual methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:25:y:2020:i:4:p:698-717

DOI: 10.1177/1360780420928380

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