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COPYRIGHT 2000 JAI Press, Inc.
Old age is particularly difficult to assume because we have always regarded it as something alien, a foreign species: "Can I have become a different being while I still remain myself?" (de Beauvoir 1972)
INTRODUCTION
A recurring theme in social gerontology is that, in America and other western societies, there has been relatively little interest in what it means to grow old (Cole 1992). Aging has been viewed largely as a problem, defined in terms of decline in both physical and social competencies. The old person is defined by what she or he is no longer: a mature productive adult--the apogee of the modern life course. The biomedical model of gerontology--with its emphasis on science and technology--arose to combat the "disease" of old age (Estes and Binney 1991; Moody 1993). The hegemony of old age as problem and disease has been under attack within segments of social gerontology for three decades, driven by a constellation of ostensibly positive views of aging (e.g., activity and continuity theories). The "ageless self" encapsulates the positive notions of continuity, coherence, and integrity in aging--ramparts in the ongoing battle against negative stereotypes of old age (Kaufman 1986).
As a social geographer I accentuate the power of place in providing potent images of aging. Nowhere is the societal image of the ageless self more apparent (transparent) than in the emplacement of identities in Sun Belt retirement communities (Laws 1995). Using Arizona as a case study, I illuminate expression of the ageless self in promotional and institutional representations of seniors and leisure lifestyles. My overarching aim is to show that place-based images of "successful" aging are mold and mirror of deeply embedded ageist attitudes and cultural values.
The article is organized into three sections. I begin with a dissection and critique of the notion of the ageless self. In section two, I reveal ways in which space and place are implicated in societal scripts of successful aging, including a critique of the Arizona Office of Senior Living (OSL) and public-private efforts in promoting and marketing Arizona as an idyllic haven for active affluent seniors. In the final section, I raise the ethical dilemma of "outside" versus "inside" readings of retirement communities and argue that vestiges of the ageless self find expression in the voices and narratives of seniors themselves. I conclude by calling for multiple epistemologies and approaches in studying the spatiality of aging.
THE AGELESS SELF: KAUFMAN AND BEYOND
Sharon Kaufman's (1986) seminal book, The Ageless Self' Sources of Meaning in Late Life, presents an expressive "insider" treatment of identities and themes in aging. Her modus operandi is to allow elders to speak for themselves to combat the predominantly negative stereotypes of old age as loss and decline. Kaufman comes to the notion of the ageless self as keynote in her study:
... I have heard many old people talk about themselves, their pasts, and their concerns for the future. I have observed that when they talk about who they are and how their lives have been, they do not speak of being old as meaningful in itself, that is, they do not relate to aging or chronological age as a category of experience or meaning. To the contrary, when old people talk about themselves, they express a sense of self that is ageless--an identity that maintains continuity despite the physical and social changes that come with old age.... Being old per se is not a central feature of the self, nor is it a source of meaning. (Pp. 6-7)
Kaufman's notion is about continuity in identity as felt on the inside. There is widespread recognition that elders often draw a distinction between their aging body, especially in terms of outward appearance, and their internal sense of self. Kaufman discovered this tendency among participants in her study. Ida, 92 years of age, tells Kaufman,
There's this feeling of being out of one's skin. The feeling that you are not in your own body.... I always think of myself as younger, though not at any specific age, just at some time in the past. Whenever I'm walking downtown, and I see my reflection in a store window, I'm shocked by how old it is. I never think of myself that way. (Pp. 8-9)
This has been described as the mask of aging-to see old age as a mask or disguise "which conceals the essential identity of the person beneath" (Featherstone and Hepworth 1991:379). This attests to the potency of our youth culture and concomitant lack of meaning associated with older age. Featherstone and Hepworth point out that it is the aging mask that is seen as pathological whereas the inner essential self is regarded as normal. This, they argue, contributes to the illusion that aging is potentially a curable disease.
Along similar lines, Oberg (1996) discusses the paradox of the absent body in social gerontological research despite the fact that aging is an embodied process. This reflects the body-soul dualism deeply embedded in the Platonic-Christian tradition, a dualism that penetrates modern society and science and finds expression in gerontological concepts such as the ageless self. The inner "self [soul] is held superior to the body, and continuity is held superior to discontinuity" (pp. 705-706). Oberg argues that through biographical narratives "we can choose to present ourselves as ageless and bodiless" (p. 709), and narrate a story that emphasizes continuity and coherence. We must remain attune to the fact that "narratives about the self are bound to the conventions our society provides us with" (pp. 715-716).
The ageless self speaks to postmodern sensibilities of time and societal views of reminiscence in older age. The active engaged person does not have time to wallow in the past. After all, reminiscence-remembering...
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