Aged by culture : a study of the social construction of ageing and old age in the 21st century

Abstract

Post Industrialism has idealized the youthful body devaluing the ageing body in the process. 'The ageing of populations' has enhanced our concern for the elderly and highlighted the need to overcome the negative discriminatory attitudes we hold towards ageing and consequently the elderly, otherwise known as Ageism. The meanings we give the biological process of ageing and the evaluations we make of the ageing body are social constructions, which reflect the values found in a specific culture at a particular period (Featherstone & Hepworth, 1995 as cited in Featherstone & Wernick, 1995). From this perspective, this dissertation discusses the roles of the media and society in the construction of today's ageing and ageism and then, using a cultural studies approach, examines how men and women's magazines implicitly contain ageism and thus cultivate it in readers, implying that it should be possible to reconstruct these attitudes and thus, create a culture of positive ageing through the media.