postmodernism

• Polhemus


  • advertising acronyms, such as SKIER (spending kids inheritance) and GRUMPY (grown up urban professionals) shows that stereotypes may be changing from marginalised and invisible.
• Pilcher

  • The modern life course is becoming less defined - blurred boundaries between stages
  • People increasingly challenge age norms, e.g. children dressing like adults or the other way round
  • factors like, waried marriage, childbearing ages, early retirement and cosmetic surgery have disrupted traditional life stages
  • the life course is becoming deinstitutionalised, offering more freedom in how age shapes one's life.
• Featherstone and Hepworth


  the middle classes are most likely to have postmodernist approach. Life courses have become deconstructed, making it less predictable. for example:

  1. children and adults becoming more alike (gestures, clothing, etc)
  2. childhood is becoming less seperate from other stages of life
  3. middle class adults reaching retirement with good pensions can afford to continue enjoying consumerism
  4. some spending goes onto body maintenance.
  5. baby boomers born after WW2 are taking their youth values into their old age.
  6. Age is increasingly viewed positively, not an inevitable decline
• Featherstone and Hepworth


  age is better defined by how one feels or looks, rather than the years that they have lived
• Blaikie


  • Attitudes towards retirement have shifted dramatically, with stereotypes of old age breaking down
  • develipment of consumer culture has contributed to this
  • there is a growing elderly population that have become an important market for companies
  • media figures, e.g. joan collins challenge ageing stereotypes by maintaining youthfulness
  • there is more positive portrayalas of elderly people enjoying life & staying active
  • professionals (health workers) see it as normal for older people to be sexually active and healthy
  • Postmodernist focus on choice - individuals choose their own identities
• Laczko and Phillipson


  They researched early retirement and found that the inequality faced by some elderly people was due to wealth and not ageing itself.
• J.B Priestley - the mask of old age

  for him, ageing was like someone had kidnapped him and made him old, yet behind his appearance, he had the same thoughts as when he was younger.

  Suggests that the inequalities faced by the elderly are therefore more to do with labelling than ageing.