SHAME AND THE AGING WOMAN Confronting and Resisting Ageism in Contemporary Women’s Writings J Brooks Bouson PALGRAVE STUDIES IN AFFECT THEORY AND LITERARY CRITICISM Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism Series Editors Adam Frank University of British Columbia Vancouver, Prince Edward Island Canada Joel Faflak Western University London, OntarioCanada The recent surge of interest in affect and emotion has productively crossed disciplinary boundaries within and between the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, but has not often addressed questions of literature and literary criticism as such The first of its kind, Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism seeks theoretically informed scholarship that examines the foundations and practice of literary criticism in relation to affect theory This series aims to stage contemporary debates in the field, addressing topics such as: the role of affective experience in literary composition and reception, particularly in non-Western literatures; examinations of historical and conceptual relations between major and minor philosophies of emotion and literary experience; and studies of race, class, gender, sexuality, age, and disability that use affect theory as a primary critical tool More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14653 J. Brooks Bouson Shame and the Aging Woman Confronting and Resisting Ageism in Contemporary Women’s Writings J. Brooks Bouson Loyola University Chicago Chicago, Illinois, USA Palgrave Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism ISBN 978-3-319-31710-6 ISBN 978-3-319-31711-3 DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31711-3 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948774 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Cover illustration: © Vincenzo Dragani / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland PREFACE Shame and the Aging Woman is a book about a dreadful cultural secret that, as I show, is hidden in plain sight In Shame and the Aging Woman, I offer an unapologetic—even shameless—analysis of the horrible cost that gendered ageism exacts on older women in our graying society To openly discuss this topic in our anti-aging and age-phobic twenty-first-century society is to break social taboos, since even the words “shame” and “old” can discomfort and offend people Yet we live in a shame-based and ageist culture in which the intense focus on, and even obsession with, all things youthful leads to a pervasive shaming of aging and old women The recent and contemporary North American and British women authors that I examine in Shame and the Aging Woman dare to disclose this secret through their relentless exposure of the myriad ways that our culture shames older women As these writers make visible the hidden shaming of older women that goes on in our society, they expose the high human and emotional price exacted on women in later life in our youth-oriented and appearance-driven culture In Shame and the Aging Woman, I bring together the research findings of contemporary feminist age studies scholars, feminist gerontologists, and narrative gerontologists, and I also draw on the work of shame theorists as I explain the affective dynamics of sexageism and what I call the “embodied shame” that afflicts older women: that is, women’s shame about the visible signs of aging and the health and appearance of their bodies as they undergo the normal processes of bodily aging As I examine both fictional and nonfiction works in Shame and the Aging Woman, I show how sexageism functions as a deeply embedded shaming ideology that oppresses older women, and as I offer a v vi PREFACE sustained analysis of the various ways in which sexageism can devalue and damage the identities of otherwise psychologically healthy women in our graying culture, I use shame theory to explain why sexageism is so deeply entrenched in our culture and why even aging feminists may succumb to it The fact that women’s studies scholars involved in age studies have admitted, again and again, that there can be something deeply unsettling, if not terribly disconcerting, about the study of gendered ageism points to the difficulty of the task that I have undertaken Yet as I have worked on this project, I have had the good fortune to teach students who have become passionately, and also compassionately, involved with the issues surrounding the stigmatized bodies and socially devalued identities of older women in our society In particular, I have been cheered and invigorated by the goodwill, earnestness, and enthusiasm of the many women students that I have taught in my undergraduate and graduate courses devoted to the study of women writers at Loyola University Chicago and also in my courses focused on the topic of shame in literature Just as I have worked over the past few years to bring the study of emotions back into the analysis of literature, so I have felt it part of my mission as a literature professor to introduce my students to the developing fields of twenty-firstcentury age studies and feminist gerontology in my courses devoted to the study of recent and contemporary women’s literature Because ageism has become deeply entrenched within feminism over the years, there has long been a feminist avoidance of the issues surrounding gendered ageism and the social devaluation of the identities and bodies of aging and old women in our culture But many of my young women students view the ageist oppression of older women as an important social justice and feminist issue, and the passion and fervor of my students gives me hope that they will continue to engage with this issue as they move forward in their lives During the time that I have spent working on—and sometimes struggling with—Shame and the Aging Woman, I have been gratified by the impassioned responses of my students and also heartened by the interest of my colleagues in this project I am especially grateful to Professor Joyce Wexler, the Chair of Loyola’s English Department, for her long-standing and collegial support of my work and to the administration of Loyola University for granting me a research leave and a summer grant while I was working on this project I have other debts to acknowledge as well Special thanks are due, as always, to Joseph Adamson, for his vital support and for the inspiration of his example as a pioneer in the study of PREFACE vii shame and literature And I owe special thanks to Brigitte Shull at Palgrave Macmillan Press, for her interest in my project, and I especially want to thank Ryan Jenkins, my Palgrave editor, for his encouragement and generous support of my work and for his wonderful patience and good humor as he dealt with my various inquiries as I worked on this book “The natural response to shame is hiding, and hiding breeds silence which further deepens shame,” as shame theorist Gershen Kaufman tells us Refusing to be silent or to hide in shame, the authors I include in Shame and the Aging Woman may discomfort us But as they expose the various and often insidious ways that sexageism shames and wounds older women, they also seek to raise awareness of the plight of the older woman in our graying society As the new emphasis on successful aging in recent times has led to an ever-intensifying dread of aging and a denial of bodily age-related changes, older women are being told, in effect: “Be quiet! Hold your tongue! Don’t talk about it Don’t tell.” The feminist gerontologists and age studies scholars and women authors that I assemble in the following pages refuse to follow this cultural mandate As they expose a painful cultural affliction that is hidden in plain sight by making visible the ubiquitous presence of shame in the daily lives of older women, they seek to develop our age consciousness and to help us find ways to resist the body politics that devalues and disrespects the lives of so many older women in our age-phobic and anti-aging contemporary culture of appearances CONTENTS Aging Women and the Age Mystique: Age Anxiety and Body Shame in the Contemporary Culture of Appearances The Mask of Aging and the Social Devaluation and Sexual Humiliation of the Aging and Old Woman 39 Facing the Stranger in the Mirror in Illness, Disability, and Physical Decline 93 Confronting and Resisting an Unlivable Age Culture 143 Works Cited 193 Index 205 ix 198 WORKS CITED Gilbert, Paul, and Bernice Andrews, eds Shame: Interpersonal Behavior, Psychopathology, and Culture New York: Oxford University Press, 1998 Gilbert, Paul, and Jeremy Miles, eds Body Shame: Conceptualisation, Research and Treatment New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2002 Goldberg, Carl Understanding Shame Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1991 Gott, Merryn Sexuality, Sexual Health and Ageing Berkshire, UK: Open University Press, 2005 Greer, Germaine The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause 1991 New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992 Grosz, Elizabeth Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994 Gullette, Margaret Morganroth Aged by Culture Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004 ——— Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011 ——— Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997 Hallberg, Ingalill “A Narrative Approach to Nursing Care of People in Difficult Life Situations.” Kenyon, Clark, deVries, Narrative Gerontology 237–72 Heilbrun, Carolyn The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty New York: Random House-Ballantine, 1997 Hen Co-op Growing Old Disgracefully: New Ideas for Getting the Most Out of Life Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1994 Herz, Rachel That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion New York: W.W. Norton, 2012 Hillyer, Barbara “The Embodiment of Old Women: Silences.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 19.1 (1998): 48–60 Hollenberg, Donna Krolik “An Interview with Carol Shields.” Contemporary Literature 39.3 (Fall 1998): 339−55 Holstein, Martha B “A Feminist Perspective on Anti-Aging Medicine.” Generations 25.4 (Winter 2001–2002): 38–43 ——— “On Being an Aging Woman.” Calasanti and Slevin, Age Matters 313–34 ——— Women in Late Life: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Age Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015 Holstein, Martha B., Jennifer A. Parks, and Mark H. Waymack Ethics, Aging, and Society: The Critical Turn New York: Springer, 2011 Hurd, Laura “‘We’re Not Old!’: Older Women’s Negotiation of Aging and Oldness.” Journal of Aging Studies 13.4 (1999): 419–39 Hurd Clarke, Laura Facing Age: Women Growing Older in Anti-Aging Culture Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011 ——— “Older Women’s Bodies and the Self: The Construction of Identity in Later Life.” CRSA/RCSA 38.4 (2001): 441−64 WORKS CITED 199 Hurd Clarke, Laura, and Erica Bennett “‘You Learn to Live with All the Things That Are Wrong With You’”: Gender and the Experience of Multiple Chronic Conditions in Later Life.” Ageing and Society 33.2 (February 2013): 342−60 Hurd Clarke, Laura, and Meridith Griffin “Visible and Invisible Ageing: Beauty Work as a Response to Ageism.” Ageing and Society 28 (2008): 653–74 Irvine, Janice “Shame Comes Out of the Closet.” Sexuality Research & Social Policy 6.1 (March 2009): 70−79 Jacoby, Susan Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age New York: Pantheon Books, 2011 Johnson, Erica, and Patricia Moran Introduction The Female Face of Shame Ed Erica Johnson and Patricia Moran Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013 1−19 Jong, Erica Fear of Fifty: A Midlife Memoir New York: HarperCollins, 1994 Jönson, Håkan “We Will Be Different! Ageism and the Temporal Construction of Old Age.” The Gerontologist 53.2 (2012): 198−204 Kaplan, E.  Ann “Trauma and Aging: Marlene Dietrich, Melanie Klein, and Marguerite Duras.” Woodward, Figuring Age 171–94 Katz, Stephen, and Barbara Marshall “New Sex for Old: Lifestyle, Consumerism, and the Ethics of Aging Well.” Journal of Aging Studies 17 (2003): 3−16 Kaufman, Sharon The Ageless Self: Sources of Meaning in Late Life Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986 Kaufman, Gershen The Psychology of Shame: Theory and Treatment of Shame-Based Syndromes New York: Springer, 1989 ——— Shame: The Power of Caring 1980, 1985 3rd ed Rochester, VT: Schenkman Books, 1992 Kearney, Richard Strangers, Gods, and Monsters: Ideas of Otherness New  York: Routledge, 2003 Kenyon, Gary, Phillip Clark, and Brian deVries, eds Narrative Gerontology: Theory, Research, and Practice New York: Springer Publishing, 2001 Kenyon, Gary, and William Randall “Narrative Gerontology: An Overview.” Kenyon, Clark, deVries, Narrative Gerontology 3–18 King, Jeannette Discourses of Ageing in Fiction and Feminism: The Invisible Woman New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 Kleinman, Arthur The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition New York: Basic Books, 1988 Kristeva, Julia Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection Trans Leon Roudiez New York: Columbia University Press, 1982 Lamb, Sarah “Permanent Personhood or Meaningful Decline? Toward a Critical Anthropology of Successful Aging.” Journal of Aging Studies 29 (2014): 41−52 200 WORKS CITED Lawton, Julia “Contemporary Hospice Care: The Sequestration of the Unbounded Body and ‘Dirty Dying.’” Sociology of Health and Illness 20.2 (1998): 121–43 ——— The Dying Process: Patients’ Experiences of Palliative Care London and New York: Routledge, 2000 Laz, Cheryl “Age Embodied.” Journal of Aging Studies 17 (2003): 503–19 Leeming, Dawn, and Mary Boyle “Shame as a Social Phenomenon: A Critical Analysis of the Concept of Dispositional Shame.” Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice 77 (2004): 375−96 Lesnoff-Caravaglia, Gari “Double Stigmata: Female and Old.” The World of the Older Woman: Conflicts and Resolutions Ed Gari Lesnoff-Caravaglia New York: Human Sciences Press, 1984 11−20 Lewis, Helen Block “Introduction: Shame—the ‘Sleeper’ in Psychopathology.” Helen Lewis, Role of Shame 1–28 ———, ed The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1987 ——— “Shame and the Narcissistic Personality.” Nathanson, Many Faces of Shame, 93−132 Lewis, Michael Shame: The Exposed Self 1992 New York: Free Press-Simon and Schuster, 1995 Lipscomb, Valerie “‘We Need a Theoretical Base’: Cynthia Rich, Women’s Studies, and Ageism: An Interview.” NWSA Journal 18.1 (Spring 2006): 3−12 Locke, Jill “Shame and the Future of Feminism.” Hypatia 22.4 (Fall 2007): 146−62 Lorenz, Rebecca Ann “Indicators of Preclinical Disability: Women’s Experiences of an Aging Body.” Journal of Women and Aging 21 (2009): 138–51 Mandel, Charlotte “Who Is May Sarton? A Review of Her Final Journal.” Puckerbrush Review 15.2 (Winter-Spring 1997): 105–07 Markson, Elizabeth “Sagacious, Sinful, or Superfluous? The Social Construction of Older Women.” Handbook on Women and Aging Ed Jean Coyle Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997 53–71 Marshall, Leni Age Becomes Us: Bodies and Gender in Time Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015 ——— “Aging: A Feminist Issue.” NWSA Journal 18.1 (Spring 2006): vii−xiii McDermott, Sinéad “The Double Wound: Shame and Trauma in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan.” Sexed Sentiments: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Emotion Ed Willemijn Ruberg and Kristine Steenbergh Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010 141−63 McGinn, Colin The Meaning of Disgust Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 McKee, Kevin, and Merryn Gott “Shame and the Ageing Body.” Gilbert and Miles, Body Shame 75–89 WORKS CITED 201 McKim, A. Elizabeth, and William Randall “From Psychology to Poetics: Aging as a Literary Process.” Journal of Aging, Humanities, and the Arts (2007): 147−58 Meyers, Diana Tietjens “Miroir, Mémoire, Mirage: Appearance, Aging, and Women.” Walker, Mother Time 23–41 Miller, Nancy K “The Marks of Time.” Woodward, Figuring Age 3–19 Miller, Susan Disgust: The Gatekeeper Emotion Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 2004 ——— The Shame Experience Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1993 Minkler, Meredith “Aging and Disability: Behind and Beyond the Stereotypes.” Journal of Aging Studies 4.3 (1990): 245–60 Morell, Carolyn M “Empowerment and Long-living Women: Return to the Rejected Body.” Journal of Aging Studies 17 (2003): 69–85 Morris, Jenny “Feminism and Disability.” Feminist Review 43 (Spring 1993): 57–70 Morrison, Andrew The Culture of Shame New York: Ballantine-Random House, 1996 ——— Shame: The Underside of Narcissism Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press, 1989 Nathanson, Donald, ed The Many Faces of Shame New  York: Guilford Press, 1987 Nathanson, Donald Shame and Pride: Affect, Sex, and the Birth of the Self 1992 New York: W.W. Norton, 1994 ——— “A Timetable for Shame.” Nathanson, Many Faces of Shame 1−63 Nead, Lynda The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity, and Sexuality London: Routledge, 1992 Nelson, Hilde Lindemann Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair New  York: Cornell University Press, 2001 ——— “Stories of My Old Age.” Walker, Mother Time 75–95 Nelson, Todd “Ageism: Prejudice Against Our Feared Future Self.” Journal of Social Issues 61.2 (2005): 207−21 Nurka, Camille “Feminine Shame/Masculine Disgrace: A Literary Excursion through Gender and Embodied Emotion.” Cultural Studies Review 18.3 (December 2012): 310−33 Öberg, Peter, and Lars Tornstam “Body Images Among Men and Women of Different Ages.” Ageing and Society 19 (1999): 629–44 Paster, Gail The Body Embarrassed: Drama and the Disciplines of Shame in Early Modern England Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993 Pearlman, Sarah “Late Mid-Life Astonishment: Disruptions to Identity and SelfEsteem.” In Faces of Women and Aging Ed Nancy Davis, Ellen Cole, and Esther Rothblum New York and London: Haworth Press, 1993 1−12 Pogrebin, Letty Cottin Getting Over Getting Older: An Intimate Journey Boston: Little, Brown, 1996 202 WORKS CITED Probyn, Elspeth Blush: Faces of Shame Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005 Randall, William “Storied Worlds: Acquiring a Narrative Perspective on Aging, Identity, and Everyday Life.” Kenyon, Clark, deVries, Narrative Gerontology 31–62 Randall, William, and Gary Kenyon Ordinary Wisdom: Biographical Aging and the Journey of Life Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2001 Ray, Ruth Beyond Nostalgia: Aging and Life-Story Writing Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 2000 ——— Endnotes: An Intimate Look at the End of Life New  York: Columbia University Press, 2008 Roberto, Karen A., and Sandra G. Reynolds “Older Women’s Experiences with Chronic Pain: Daily Challenges and Self-Care Practices.” Journal of Women and Aging 14.3–4 (2002): 5–23 Rubin, Lillian 60 on Up: The Truth about Aging in the Twenty-First Century Boston: Beacon Press, 2007 Rubenstein, Roberta “Feminism, Eros, and the Coming of Age.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 22.2 (2001): 1–19 Ruddick, Sara “Virtues and Age.” Walker, Mother Time 45−60 Scannell, Kate “An Aging Un-American.” New England Journal of Medicine 355.14 (5 October 2006): 1415–17 Scheff, Thomas Bloody Revenge: Emotions, Nationalism, and War Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994 ——— “Shame in Self and Society.” Symbolic Interaction 26.2 (2003): 239−62 Scheff, Thomas, and Suzanne Retzinger Emotions and Violence: Shame and Rage in Destructive Conflicts Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books-D.C. Heath, 1991 Scheff, Thomas, Suzanne Retzinger, and Michael Ryan “Crime, Violence, and Self-Esteem: Review and Proposals.” The Social Importance of Self-Esteem Ed Andrew Mecca, Neil Smelser, and John Vasconcellos Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989 165−99 Schneider, Carl Shame, Exposure, and Privacy 1977 New York: W.W. Norton, 1992 Segal, Lynne “Forever Young: Medusa’s Curse and the Discourses of Ageing.” Women: A Cultural Review 18.1 (2007): 41−56 ——— Out of Time: The Pleasures and Perils of Ageing London: Verso, 2013 Sontag, Susan “The Double Standard of Ageing.” An Ageing Population: A Reader and Sourcebook Ed Vida Carver and Penny Liddiard New  York: Holmes and Meier, 1979 72–80 (Rpt Saturday Review, 23 September 1972, pp. 29–38) Sprague, Claire Rereading Doris Lessing: Narrative Patterns of Doubling and Repetition Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987 WORKS CITED 203 Stein, Kitty, and Robert G. Lee “Chronic Illness and Shame: One Person’s Story.” The Voice of Shame: Silence and Connection in Psychotherapy Ed Robert G. Lee and Gordon Wheeler San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996 101−21 Thomas, Joan “‘The Golden Book’: An Interview with Carol Shields.” Prairie Fire 14 (Winter 1993–94): 56–62 Tomkins, Silvan Shame and its Sisters: A Silvan Tomkins Reader Ed Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Adam Frank Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995 Toombs, S. Kay “The Body in Multiple Sclerosis: A Patient’s Perspective.” In The Body in Medical Thought and Practice Ed Drew Leder Philosophy and Medicine Series volume 43 Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992 127−37 Tornstam, Lars Gerotranscendence: A Developmental Theory of Positive Aging New York: Springer Publishing, 2005 Troll, Lillian “Issues in the Study of Older Women: 1970 to 1985.” Health and Economic Status of Older Women Ed A.  Regula Herzog, Karen C.  Holden, Mildred M. Seltzer Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 1989 17–23 Tunaley, Jillian, Susan Walsh, and Paula Nicolson “‘I’m Not Bad for My Age’: The Meaning of Body Size and Eating in the Lives of Older Women.” Ageing and Society 19 (1999): 741–59 Turner, Bryan “Aging and Identity: Some Reflections on the Somatization of the Self.” Images of Aging: Cultural Representations of Later Life Ed Mike Featherstone and Andrew Wernick New York and London: Routledge: 1995 245–60 Twigg, Julia “The Body and Bathing: Help with Personal Care at Home.” Aging Bodies: Images and Everyday Experience Ed Christopher Faircloth Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman and Littlefield/Altamira Press, 2003 143–69 ——— “The Body, Gender, and Age: Feminist Insights in Social Gerontology.” Journal of Aging Studies 18.1 (2004): 59–73 Vares, Tiina “Reading the ‘Sexy Oldie’: Gender, Age(ing) and Embodiment.” Sexualities 12.4 (2009): 503–24 Walker, Margaret Urban, ed Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999 Wallace, Diana “‘Women’s Time’: Women, Age, and Intergenerational Relations in Doris Lessing’s The Diaries of Jane Somers.” Studies in the Literary Imagination 39.2 (Fall 2006): 43–59 Walz, Thomas “Crones, Dirty Old Men, Sexy Seniors: Representations of the Sexuality of Older Persons.” Journal of Aging and Identity 7.2 (June 2002): 99–112 Watkins, Susan Doris Lessing Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2010 Waxman, Barbara Frey From the Hearth to the Open Road: A Feminist Study of Aging in Contemporary Literature Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990 204 WORKS CITED ——— To Live in the Center of the Moment: Literary Autobiographies of Aging Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1997 Wendell, Susan “Old Women Out of Control: Some Thoughts on Aging, Ethics, and Psychosomatic Medicine.” Walker, Mother Time 133–49 ——— The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability New York: Routledge, 1996 White, Leah “Silenced Stories: May Sarton’s Journals as a Form of Discursive Resistance.” Women’s Life-Writing: Finding Voice/Building Community Ed Linda Coleman Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997 81–90 Williams, Angie, Virpi Ylänne, and Paul Mark Wadleigh “Selling the ‘Elixir of Life’: Images of the Elderly in an Olivio Advertising Campaign.” Journal of Aging Studies 21 (2007): 1–21 Woodward, Kathleen “Against Wisdom: The Social Politics of Anger and Aging.” Cultural Critique 51 (Spring 2002): 186–218 ——— Aging and its Discontents: Freud and Other Fictions Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991 ———, ed Figuring Age: Women, Bodies, Generations Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999 ——— Introduction Woodward, Figuring Age ix–xxix ——— “The Mirror Stage of Old Age.” Memory and Desire: Aging—Literature— Psychoanalysis Ed Kathleen Woodward and Murray Schwartz Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986 97–113 ——— “Performing Age, Performing Gender.” NWSA Journal 18.1 (Spring 2006): 162–89 ——— “Telling Stories: Aging, Reminiscence, and the Life Review.” Journal of Aging and Identity 2.3 (1997): 149–63 Wurmser, Léon The Mask of Shame 1981 Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994 ——— “Shame: The Veiled Companion of Narcissism.” Nathanson, Many Faces of Shame 64–92 Young, Lucie “The Incredible Ageing Woman.” Guardian (1 August 1989): 16−17 Zebrowitz, Leslie, and Joann Montepare “‘Too Young, Too Old’: Stigmatizing Adolescents and Elders.” The Social Psychology of Stigma Ed Todd Heatherton, Robert Kleck, Michelle Hebl, Jay Hull New  York: Guilford Press, 2000 334−73 Zitzelsberger, Hilde “(In)visibility: Accounts of Embodiment of Women with Physical Disabilities and Differences.” Disability and Society 20.4 (June 2005): 389–403 INDEX A Adamson, Joseph, 32 Ageism age denial, and, 1, 20–3 age mystique, and, 11–18 anti-aging ageism, and, 20–3 decline narrative of aging, and, 18–20 feminist accounts of, 3–7, 11–14, 45–6 graying of society, and, v, 1–2, 20–3 learned cultural shame, and, 1–3, 8–17 second-wave feminism, and, vi, 1–7, 11–14, 45, 47–51 stigmatization of old age, and, 1–2, 9–23, 39–46, 75–7, 93–100, 135–6 successful aging movement, and, 20–3, 37n8, 37n9, 95–6, 135–6 Aging age categories, and, 20–1, 22 body disgust, and, 1–2, 39–41 body shame, and, v, 1–2, 10–24, 39–46, 93–100, 135–6 decline and loss view of, 18–20 decline and progress scripts of, 18–20 feminist accounts of, 3–7, 11–14, 45–6, 47–51 learned cultural shame, and, 1–3, 8–23, 41–6, 93–100, 135–6 life review process, and, 30, 147–50, 190–1n2, 191n3 narrative gerontology and, 25, 146–9, 151, 163, 168, 173, 188 successful aging, and, 20–3, 37n8, 37n9, 95–6, 135–6 third and fourth ages, and, 20–1, 95–6, 99 Aging women age anxiety of, v, 5–7, 10–20, 39–46, 93–100, 135–6, 143–4 Note: Page number followed by “n” refers to endnotes © The Author(s) 2016 J.B Bouson, Shame and the Aging Woman, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31711-3 205 206 INDEX Aging women (cont.) age denial of, 20–3 beauty culture, and, 14–17, 20–2, 42–4 body shame of, v, 1, 10–24, 39–46, 93–100 chronic illness, disability, and physical decline, shame of, 93–100 disappearing old woman, and, 10–11, 41–2 gendered ageism, and, 1–7, 14–23, 39–46, 93–100, 135–6, 143–4 hypervisible bodies of, 1–2, 10–20, 39–46 learned cultural shame of, 1–2, 6–23, 39–46, 93–100, 135–6, 143–4 mask of aging, and, 10, 28, 39–40, 43–4 nursing home specter, and, 118, 135 passing as younger, desire to, 1–2, 20–3, 39–40, 44, 95–7 second-wave feminism, and, vi, 1–7, 11–14, 45–6, 47–51 self-othering of, 4, 19, 45, 75–7, 82–3 sexual humiliation of, 39–40, 62–5, 87–9n8, 89–90n9, 90n10 social devaluation of, 1–2, 8–23, 39–46, 75–7, 93–100, 135–9, 143–4 social invisibility of, 3, 10–11, 41–3, 46, 49–52, 58–63, 77–80, 93 stigmatized bodies of, 1–3, 10–20, 39–46, 75–7, 93–100, 135–6, 143–4 Ahmed, Sara, 24 Andrews, Molly, 22, 23, 30–1, 34–5n3, 144, 146–7, 149, 189 Astley, Thea Coda, 118–21 contempt-disappear scenario in, 118–19 memory loss in, 119, 120–1 nursing home specter in, 118–20 old woman, invisibility of, in, 120–1 B Banner, Lois, 65 Barker, Pat “Alice Bell” from Union Street, 133–5 bodily abjection in, 133–4 dying and death in, 134–5 indignities of old age in, 133–4 mask of aging experience in, 133–4 nursing home specter in, 134, 135 Bartky, Sandra, 9, 31, 143 Bazin, Victoria, Beauvoir, Simone de, 1, 3–5, 33n2, 76–7, 81, 82, 185 Bell, Dale, 113 Bennett, Erica, 98–9 Biggs, Simon, 40 Birren, James, 146 Blaikie, Andrew, 126, 135 Blair, Barbara, 125 Blum, Virginia, 61, 82–3, 87n7 Bordo, Susan, 26 Boyle, Mary, 85n3 Braham, Jeanne, 112–13, 181 Brookner, Anita Brief Lives, 73–5; aging and bodily decline in, 73, 74; late-life romance in, 73–5; old age and decrepitude in, 74; solitude of old age in, 73, 75 Bruner, Jerome, 163 Burnside, Irene, 147 Butler, Robert, 34n3, 147–8, 190–1n2 INDEX Byatt, A. S “Baglady”, 56–7; aging experience, identity stripping, and, 57; aging, fear of, in, 56–7; baglady identity, fear of, 57; old age as loss of identity in, 57 “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”, 54–6; aging as crisis-ofidentity in, 54–5; anti-aging culture in, 55–6; body disgust in, 55; middle age in, 54, 55; old woman as other in, 54–5; old woman, fear of, in, 54–5; successful aging in, 56 “Medusa’s Ankles”, 52–4; aging as crisis-of-identity in, 52–3; body shame in, 52–4; middle-age fears in, 52–4; self-othering in, 53–4 Bytheway, Bill, 34–5n3 C Calasanti, Toni, 6, 27, 35n4, 87n6 Carpenter, Mary Wilson, 11 Clarke, Hilary, 32 Copper, Baba Over the Hill, 50–1; ageism, account of, 50–1; aging women, feminist rejection of, 51; aging women, invisibility of, 50, 51; aging women, learned cultural shame of, 50–1; aging women, scapegoating of, 51; feminist movement, generational divide within, 51 Coupland, Justine, 61, 89n9, 144 Couser, G. Thomas, 100, 113 Covan, Eleanor Krassen, 96–7 Covino, Deborah, 87n7, 139n4 Cruikshank, Margaret, 6, 18–20, 34n3, 35n4, 95, 137n2, 191–2n4 207 D DasGupta, Sayantani, 95, 99, 100 DeFalco, Amelia, 22, 80, 149–50, 159, 173, 185 Dinnerstein, Myra, 90n10 Drabble, Margaret The Seven Sisters, 151–7; age anxieties, and, 153, 155–6; aging experience in, 153, 155–7; decline-and-death narrative in, 155–6, 157; gerotranscendence, experience of, in, 155; late mid-life review in, 152–7; narrative gerontology, and, 151–2 E Emanuel, Ezekiel, 138–9n3 Esposito, Joseph, 76 F Featherstone, Mike, 10, 40, 84n1, 84n2 Felstiner, Mary “Casing My Joints”, 101–3; body shame, and, 102–3; disability, stigma of, 102–3; rheumatoid arthritis, account of, 101–3 Figes, Eva Ghosts, 79–82; old women, invisibility of, 79, 82; otherness of old age in, 80–2; social exclusion of old women in, 82; temporality of identity in, 80–2 Waking, 78–9; aging experience in, 78–9; aging woman, invisibility of, 79; aging woman, selfdisgust of, 78–9; aging woman, self-othering of, 78–9; old age, shame of, 78–9 208 INDEX Fisher, M. F K, 23 Flinders, Susan L, 129 Frank, Arthur, 29, 100 French, Marilyn My Summer with George, 70–3; aging female body, disgust for, 70–1, 72–3; aging woman, sexual humiliation of, 70–1, 72–3; aging woman, sexuality of, 71–3; cross-age relationships, shame of, 70–2; late-life romance in, 71–3; mask of aging experience in, 70; old age, physical depredations of, 70–1, 72–3 Friedan, Betty, 12–13, 118, 147–8 Furman, Frida Kerner, 14–16, 17, 25, 31–2, 58, 165 G Garland, Christina, 148, 191n3 Garland, Jeff, 148, 191n3 Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie, 114 Gilbert, Paul, 10, 36n6 Goldberg, Carl, 2, 95 Gott, Merryn, 36n6, 63–4, 126 Greer, Germaine, 91n11 Griffin, Meridith, 42–3, 86n5 Grosz, Elizabeth, 132 Grumbach, Doris Coming into the End Zone: A Memoir, 174–7 Extra Innings: A Memoir, 177–8 Fifty Days of Solitude, 177–8; ageist self-loathing, account of, 174–5, 177; aging process, anxiety about, 174–5, 177; body shame of, 174–7; journal writing, importance of, 174, 176, 177–8; life review process, and, 174, 176–8; old age and bodily decline, fear of, 174–5, 177; productive solitude, and, 177–8 Gubar, Susan Memoir of a Debulked Woman, 109–12; abject female body, and, 110–11; cancer treatment, account of, 109–11; illness narrative and, 109, 111–12; ovarian cancer and, 109–12 Gullette, Margaret Morganroth, 6, 14, 18, 32, 36–7n7, 64, 88n8, 168, 189 H Haight, Barbara, 147 Hallberg, Ingalill, 151 Heilbrun, Carolyn, 13–14, 71, 181 Hen Co-op, 145–6 Hepworth, Mike, 10, 40, 84n2 Herz, Rachel, 85–6n4, 140n8 Hillyer, Barbara, 5, 45 Hollenberg, Donna, 164 Holstein, Martha B., 6–7, 8, 20–1, 24–5, 30, 46, 56, 63, 82–3, 90n10, 96, 135, 144–6, 150 Hurd Clarke, Laura, 16–17, 21, 41, 42–4, 76, 86n5, 96, 98–9 Hurst, Marsha, 95, 99, 100 I Irvine, Janice, 26, 36n5, 38n10 J Jacoby, Susan, 21–2, 136 Johnson, Erica, 24, 26, 36n5 Jong, Erica, 11–12 Jönson, Håkan, 37n9 INDEX K Kaplan, E. Ann, 77, 132 Katz, Stephen, 63 Kaufman, Gershen, viii, 2, 8–9, 47, 95, 106, 112, 143 Kaufman, Sharon, 146–7 Kearney, Richard, 167 Kenyon, Gary, 25, 146, 173, 180 King, Jeannette, 44–5, 51, 62–3, 87–8n8, 169, 173 King, Neal, 27, 35n4, 87n6 Kleinman, Arthur, 116, 139n6 Kristeva, Julia, 104–5, 132 L Lamb, Sarah, 20, 37n8 Laurence, Margaret The Stone Angel, 125–9; abject body in, 127; body shame in, 126–7; death in, 128–9; incontinence in, 127; mask of aging experience in, 126–7; nursing home specter in, 127; old age and abjection in, 125–6; old age and shame in, 125–9; old age as stigmatized in, 125–6, 129 Lawton, Julia, 141n10 Laz, Cheryl, 83–4n1 Lee, Robert G., 95 Leeming, Dawn, 85n3 Lesnoff-Caravaglia, Gari, 84–5n3 Lessing, Doris The Diary of a Good Neighbour, 129–33; aging female body and disgust in, 130–2; caretaking in, 129, 130, 132–3; death in, 131–2; incontinence in, 131, 132; middle-age fears of old age in, 129–32; old age and abjection in, 131–2; old age and shame in, 130–3 209 Love, Again, 65–70; aging female body, disgust for, 67–8; aging woman, sexual humiliation of, 67–9; aging woman, sexuality of, 65, 67–9; growing old, fears of, 67–70; late-life romance, shame of, 65, 67–9; learned cultural shame in, 67–70; mask of aging experience in, 67, 69; old woman as invisible in, 66, 68 The Summer before the Dark, 58–62; body shame in, 58–61; culture of appearances and, 61; growing old, fears of, 58–61; learned cultural shame in, 58, 60–1; mid-life crisis in, 58, 60–1; old woman as invisible in, 59–62 Lewis, Helen Block, Lewis, Michael, 10, 40–1 Lipscomb, Valerie, 86n6 Lively, Penelope Dancing Fish and Ammonites, 186–9; aging and bodily decline in, 186, 187, 189; aging and storied identity in, 188–9; aging process in, 186–9; narrative gerontology, and, 188–9; temporality of identity in, 186–9 Moon Tiger, 168–74; aging and storied identity in, 169–74; bodily abjection in, 169, 170; dying and death in, 168–9, 170–1, 173–4; gerotranscendence, experience of, in, 173–4; indignities of old age in, 169, 170–1; late-life review in, 168–74; life review process in, 168–74; mask of aging experience in, 170; narrative gerontology, and, 210 INDEX Lively, Penelope (cont.) 168–9, 173; temporality of identity in, 169–70 Spiderweb, 157–63; bodily processes of aging in, 159–60; declineand-loss view of aging in, 158; late midlife review in, 158–63; life review process as transformative in, 160, 162–3; mask of aging experience in, 159–60; temporality of identity in, 158–60; uncanniness of aging process in, 159–60 Locke, Jill, 38n10 Lorenz, Rebecca Ann, 97 M Macdonald, Barbara, with Cynthia Rich Look Me in the Eye, 48–50; ageism, critique of, 48–50; aging process, description of, 48; old woman as invisible, account of, 49; old woman, contemptuous treatment of, 49–50; secondwave feminism and ageism, account of, 49–50 Mairs, Nancy Carnal Acts, 112–13, 115–17 Plaintext, 112, 113 A Troubled Guest, 117 Voice Lessons, 118 Waist-High in the World, 112–16, 118; aging and disability in, 116, 117; bodily abjection in, 113, 116; “body in trouble”, descriptions of, 113–17; body shame in, 113–17; contemptuous stare, account of, 113, 114–15; “crippled” body in, 113–18; disabled body in, 112–18; multiple sclerosis, symptoms of, 112, 113–14; writing as redemption in, 117–18; writing as selfdisclosure in, 113–14, 116–18 Mandel, Charlotte, 181 Markson, Elizabeth, 64 Marshall, Barbara, 63 Marshall, Leni, 5, 33–4n2, 89n8, 174 McDermott, Sinéad, 8, 35n5 McGinn, Colin, 33n1, 41, 55, 71, 85n4, 132 McKee, Kevin, 36n6 McKim, A. Elizabeth, 188 Meyers, Diana Tietjens, 143–4 Middlebrook, Christina Seeing the Crab, 107–9; abject female body, and, 107–8; breast cancer, and, 107–9; cancer treatment, account of, 107–8; illness narrative and, 108–9 Miller, Nancy K., 45–6 Miller, Susan, 2, 132, 140n8 Minkler, Meredith, 95, 137–8n3 Montepare, Joann, 85n3 Moran, Patricia, 24, 26, 36n5 Morell, Carolyn M., 94–5 Morris, Jenny, 93 Morrison, Andrew, 28, 33n1, 41, 106, 124 N Nathanson, Donald, 8, 48 Nead, Lynda, 61 Nelson, Hilde Lindemann, 24–5, 70 Nelson, Todd, 37n9 Nicolson, Paula, 63 Nurka, Camille, 23 O Öberg, Peter, 61 INDEX P Page, P. K “A Kind of Fiction”, 77–8; ageist contempt, annihilating force of, 78; old age as crisis-of-identity in, 78; old age, fear of, 77–8; old-woman-as-other-within, encounter with, 77–8; old woman, social invisibility of, 77–8 Parks, Jennifer A., 24–5, 135, 144, 146 Paster, Gail, 24 Pearlman, Sarah, 10 Pogrebin, Letty Cottin, 12 Probyn, Elspeth, 23–4, 26–7 R Randall, William, 25, 146, 151, 163, 173, 180, 188 Ray, Ruth, 148, 191n2 Register, Cheri, 100–1 Retzinger, Suzanne, 139–40n7 Reynolds, Sandra G., 97–8 Rich, Cynthia, 49–50, 86n6 Roberto, Karen A., 97–8 Rubenstein, Roberta, 11 Rubin, Lillian, 90n10 Ruddick, Sara, 162 S Sarton, May After the Stroke, 178–81 At Eighty-Two, 184–6 Endgame, 181–4; aging and disability, reflections on, 178–9; aging process, anxiety about, 178–80, 182–3, 184; journal writing, importance of, 178, 181–2, 184–6; mask of aging, 211 experience of, 183; old age and bodily decline, account of, 178–85; old age and illness, account of, 178–85; old age as ascension, account of, 180, 181, 184–6; otherness of old age, and, 185 As We Are Now, 121–5; aging body and abjection in, 124–5; indignities of old age in, 121–5; mask of aging experience in, 123; nursing home specter in, 118, 121–5; shame and suicide in, 124–5; spoiling and stripping of identity in, 125 Scannell, Kate, 137n1 Scheff, Thomas, 9, 139–40n7 Schneider, Carl, 128, 170 Segal, Lynne, 2, 4, 7, 33n2, 64, 91n11, 149, 160, 169, 189 Shame aging process, and, 1–5, 8, 10–23, 39–46, 93–100, 135–6 body shame, Paul Gilbert on, 10, 36n6 comparison-making script, and, 106 contempt/disappear scenario, Léon Wurmser on, 8, 42, 51, 76 dying process and shame, Carl Schneider on, 128, 170 as individual and cultural phenomenon, Gershen Kaufman on, 2, 8–9 learned cultural shame, Andrew Morrison on, 28, 33n1, 41 shame affect, embodiedness of, 23–4 shame and deference/emotion system, Thomas Scheff on, shame and hiding, Gershen Kaufman on, vii, 2, 47 212 INDEX Shame (cont.) shame and stigma, Michael Lewis on, 10, 40–1 shame experience, description of, vii, 1–3, 8–11, 23–4, 26–7, 32, 41, 42, 47, 48, 51, 76, 95, 106, 112, 124, 139–40n7, 143, 170 Shields, Carol The Stone Diaries, 163–8; aging and storied identity in, 163–4, 167–8; aging-as-bodily decline in, 164–8; body shame in, 164–7; dying and death in, 163, 167–68; gerotranscendence, experience of, in, 165; late-life review in, 163–8; life review process in, 163–8; narrative gerontology, and, 163 Slevin, Kathleen, 27, 35n4, 87n6 Sontag, Susan, 4–5, 40 Spence, Jo, 105–6 Sprague, Claire, 140–1n9 Stacey, Jackie, 103–5 Stein, Kitty, 95 T Thomas, Joan, 164 Tomkins, Silvan, 99 Toombs, S. Kay, 112 Tornstam, Lars, 61, 148–9 Troll, Lillian, 22 Tunaley, Jillian, 63 Turner, Bryan, 83–4n1 Twigg, Julia, 3, 118 V Vares, Tiina, 89–90n9 W Wadleigh, Paul Mark, 64 Wallace, Diana, 41, 132, 140–1n9 Walsh, Susan, 63 Walz, Thomas, 63, 64 Watkins, Susan, 133 Waxman, Barbara Frey, 125 Waymack, Mark H., 24–5, 135, 144, 146 Weitz, Rose, 90n10 Wendell, Susan, 93–4, 113 White, Leah, 181 White, Rosie, Williams, Angie, 64 Woodward, Kathleen, 3, 4, 5, 10–11, 25, 26, 39, 42, 47, 123, 148, 150, 190n1 Wurmser, Léon, 8, 42, 51, 76 Y Ylänne, Virpi, 64 Young, Lucie, 84n2 Z Zebrowitz, Leslie, 85n3 Zitzelsberger, Hilde, 113, 139n5 ... disgust for their own aging bodies and the bodies of other older women or that they attempt to mask the aging process and pass as younger—that is, hide their shame by dyeing their hair and using... include in Shame and the Aging Woman may discomfort us But as they expose the various and often insidious ways that sexageism shames and wounds older women, they also seek to raise awareness of the. .. Culture of Appearances The Mask of Aging and the Social Devaluation and Sexual Humiliation of the Aging and Old Woman 39 Facing the Stranger in the Mirror in Illness, Disability, and Physical Decline