Middle age Flashcards
line between middle age and youth
- both transitional stages
- bodily signs of ageing
main theorists associated with middle age and their argument
Featherstone and Hepworth
- aged 35-60 considered mid-life stage
- markers of middle age have shifted upwards (longer life expectancy)
- physical indicators e.g. grey hair and wrinkles
- balance of activities between employment, family and leisure may change
New middle age after ww2 (F+H)
- traditional view that middle age is inevitable and natural, characterised by signs of ageing e.g. grey hair
- conceptualised as end of youth and beginning of old age
- after middle age, people couldn’t expect long futures
signs of middle age-Menopause
Hepworth
- before interpreted as a silent crisis. now portrayed as a fresh beginning for women not to have unplanned pregnancy
- discovery of male menopause: physiological shifts and social transformations have become convenient metaphor to express views about ‘new middle age’
HRT-what does it stand for? who’s argument is it? what is the main point?
Hormone replacement therapy-Greer (academic not sociologist). drug therapy prescribed with menopause symptoms. effects slowing down body time and physiological ageing for women. offers protection against osteoporosis and strokes. argue against women using treatment, should embrace these features and celebrate being non-reproductive, as claiming sense of self before reproductive capacities overtook
body maintenance
from cosmetics to surgery. interest heightened in 1920/30s, diet pills and turkish bath sweats. signs of ageing body seen as revealing guide to moral life person has led. youthful appearance desirable
implications of body maintenance
costly procedures only available to middle class
changes in image of retirement (F+H)
analysis on magazines advertising retirement. use to be seen as idle period sitting and watching tv. now established as positive life stage characterised by liveliness and activity. new middle age intersects around youthfulness and capacity for personal and social change brought by transitional period
featherstone and hepworth detect strong cohort of social generational factors affecting process of reconstruction of middle age
large cohort engage in 1950/60s youth culture and made use of advantageous labour market. now have income levels allowing for retirement and engage in active leisurely lifestyle, and enjoy high consumption of goods
example of recognising middle age as popular consumer group
Sotto e Sopra is a company that designs women’s clothes suffering from menopause. made from breathable material that absorbs body moisture and releases it back into atmosphere
who criticises featherstone and hepworth new middle age argument?
Sanders-some don’t have financial resources to support third age lifestyle
Carnegie inquiry-women have restricted access to third age lifestyle due to intermittent employment history , tendency to work in lower paid jobs and greater risk of poverty when older . middle age is time women return to labour market
who talks about constraints affecting women’s experience of leisure in later life?
Bernard and Meade:
1) women’s work activities in domestic sphere intertwine with leisure participation e.g. gardening and cooking
2) don’t deserve leisure time-conditioned into putting family first
3) fear of violence-in the US, one in 5 women raped compared to 1 in 71 (national sexual violence resource centre 2015)
second grouping: Schuller (1987)
-changes in transition from employment. work-ending conventionally seen as a discrete event that takes place at a given point in time. image of formal retirement marked by a party and exchanging of gifts.can be made redundant in your 40/50s though. disrupts clear-cut pattern of retirement
who talks about recent trends of early exit from labour force?
Lackzo (1989)
