Bodacious Berry, Potency Wood and the Aging Monster

Gender and Age Relations in Anti-Aging Ads

Bibliographic Data

ID2992935
AuthorsToni Calasanti (0009-0008-1486-4850, Virginia Tech, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume86
Issue1
Pages335-355
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Forces (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/sof.2007.0091
OpenAlexW2011569135
LanguageEN
Citations received58
References cited22

This paper situates age discrimination within a broader system of age relations that intersects with other inequalities, and then uses that framework to analyze internet advertisements for the anti-aging industry. Such ads reinforce age and gender relations by positing old people as worthwhile only to the extent that they look and act like those who are middle aged or younger, by defining manhood and womanhood in opposition to each other, and by defining old age as an unhealthy loss of gender identity. These ads promote a reversion to middle age and white, middle-class, heterosexual norms of male performance and female beauty. The analysis demonstrates the utility of understanding age discrimination in terms of intersecting relations of inequality rather than learned attitudes alone

Advertising · Art · Beauty · Consumer Culture · Gender relations · Inequality · Middle class · Monster · Opposition (politics) · Political science · Sociology · Aging and Gerontology Research · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Retirement, Disability, and Employment · Social Psychology

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