I have found this fascinating article and wanted to share it with the class, it relates to the way we define age (we talked in class about biological, social, and psychological age) and demonstrates how men and women have different fear as they get older. The study found that women are more concerned with fading beauty and fear of losing their looks as they get older, while men tend to worry more about sex and relationships. It was interesting to learn that even though both men and women had the similar concerns about the retirement in general (for instance, the prospect of losing their health, fitness), at the same time the number one concern was different. As we had talked in one of the previous classes society places more pressure on the way women look and dress, moreover being old is not popular and major cosmetics corporations are trying to return the so called "beauty", which I do not believe to exist in the first place. If women just spend sometime looking at the photos of the most beautiful women from all over the world they would see that the beauty standards are so different!
Questions for the class:
1) Were you surprised with the research findings?
2) Do you think that women are too stressed about their biological age?
3) Do you think women should conform to or confront their ‘social age’?
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Women-fear-losing-beauty-and-men-sex/Article1-750365.aspx
I think this is an interesting article, although I am not too surprised by the research findings. As you mentioned, society puts a lot of pressure on women to conform to specific beauty standards and media advertisements often make it seem as if a woman’s physical appearance is the most important aspect of her identity. As a result, I do not find it surprising that a woman would be most concerned with “losing her looks” as she ages. I think that a lot of women are too concerned with their biological age, but think that this is due in large part to the negative connotation that society places on being “old.”
ReplyDeletePolina (and Loveness), I am interested to know how your countries view aging in older women. Do you think that it is more embraced at home than it is here in the United States?
ReplyDeleteLike Lynnette, I am not surprised either by the findings. As us girls become teenagers, makeup is pushed on us so we look good. So I would expect that to carry over as we age. Growing up, my moms hair started going grey when she was young (like 30s) and she never dyed it. I usually never understood why she never gave into the social pressure to dye it and would give her a hard time about it. And people would say comments to her about it. But she owned it! And as I age, I start to realize how cool that is and how much strength she must have to not give in to pressure.
Thank you dear Stephanie for your interest in other countries!
ReplyDeleteYour question really made me think, and I can not give you a definite answer. I can just provide you with my observations:
1) there is definitely less pressure on Russian women to "preserve" beauty and stay young. But the Western influence is obvious, and the more American magazines our women read, the more pressure they will feel.
2) Retirement age in Russia is much earlier than in the USA: for women 55 and for men 60 (life expectancy for Russian men is 62!), so women get older faster, I mean when they stop working many of them feel like this is the end.
3)I think that women are much more afraid of the retirement than to become old! Since we do not have private pensions the whole country relies on the system that is analogous to American Social Security, and the pension is REALLY low, so no one is dreaming of the retirement, because our old people are the poorest, no Murtle Beach, no sport cars, no restaurants!
Like women in the United States, other women in other countries must also feel the pressure to stay young. When we live in such a globalized society as we do today, one society will always put out impressions to other societies.
ReplyDeleteI think that to some extent everyone feels pressure the older they become. How will they contribute to society? How will they care for their families? How will they spend their time after retirement? More than that, I know that when I get older my worst fear will be becoming a burden to those in my family. That is a legitimate fear in our societies as well as other societies especially on the minds of the poorer members.
I think the research findings are spot on. The majority of women are concerned with their age and appearance from a very early age. It is natural for their fear and anxiety about fading beauty to rapidly progress as they grow older. I believe women are too stressed about their biological age because of their need to find a lasting relationship. Their stress is most likely rooted deep within the brain to be able to find a mate and reproduce before their biological clock expires. Men are able to reproduce much later into life so their subsequent associated stress is far less than womens. I think that women need to search and recognize their own beauty and how it positively changes with age.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, thank you for bringing this excellent point - women in Russia are also very fearful of becoming a burden to their families, and since the system of nursing homes is terrible (we do not have Knolls of Oxford!) the only caregivers are families. That is why sandwich generation families are everywhere!
ReplyDeleteHey Polina! Thanks for sharing this article with the class. I do believe the research study is accurate with its findings. However, I do not think that these worries are necessarily related to age. I believe beauty is a concern for most women our age as well as is sex for men of the same age bracket. I do think as time goes on, these two worries remain ongoing... especially as we do become older and more vulnerable to loss. One part that I did find very interesting was the traditional views of the author of the article."A lot of the generation retiring now are reliant on the man’s pension because the woman may have had a long career break to raise families and therefore will not have the same security as a man." I think this holds true for the women from say the 40's and 50's, but is it as true for those women who began careers and families in the 70's and 80's? I think everyone else has answered questions two and three well and I agree with them. Women most definitely put too much emphasis on beauty and their biological age. I had a friend who just turned 25 and was devastated because she is getting old. I am a little worried about my biological age, but that is because my body will probably quit working here in twenty years. I already have back and joint pain! haha. However, it is so hard to say that I think women should focus more on this or that form of age as there are positiv and negatives that come with each form of aging. We find things to complain about with biological age. I'm sure we would do the same if everyone was concerned about their social or psychological age. Oh and thank you for sharing your culture with us! I enjoyed reading what it is like for women in Russia.
ReplyDeletePolina--
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting article that highlights the main physical concerns of aging in American society. It is so true that women are so self conscious of their appearance past a certain age. Through American media and society, women are made to believe that the perfect woman is a 25 year old with flawless skin and a fit, voluptuous body. Even before women begin to age, they plan ahead by using creams, or changing their diet to make sure that they will age gracefully.Once a woman reaches the time where their body begins to age, they become so focused on freezing themselves in a youthful state. Whether it is anti-aging creams, hair dye, or botox for those who are extreme, women act as if they will lose themselves by aging. They seem to think that they will not be the same person or will not be able to maintain their same self confidence as they age.
I see no problem in working to build one's self confidence or keep oneself fit. I think it is important for adults to maintain a workout regiment and eat healthy. Also, if someone wants to spice up their hair color or apply a little makeup, I don't think that should be a problem either. But it all reverts back to the reason they are doing these activities. If they are trying to fit themselves back into the youth of society, then their intentions are not for their own well being.
Aging is a natural process and has no time constraint for when it can occur. A woman could be 25 or 50 when their body begins to show signs of change. I think our society should make more of an effort for women to feel comfortable in their aging bodies. Everyone's body is meant to age, so we shouldn't put as much of an emphasis on preserving youth.
I agree with Lynette, I'm not surprised that women are concerned a great deal with losing their looks as they age. I think part of this obsession with beauty in American culture is directly correlated with our media. Aside from campaigns directly targeted at older women, whenever you see advertisements on television and magazines, most often they feature women who appear to never be older than mid-twenties. To answer the second discussion question, I don't think women are too concerned with their biological age, but more so of how old they appear to be. Ultimately biological age is trivial for women aside from being able have children. I think more so women are concerned if they have good physical appearances. That is why there are so many products focused on combating aging , covering flaws, etc.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you, Stephanie, most ads do show only young women. How often do we see the models from the 1980s or 1990s, for example? Once you get older than 20, you leave the model business! That is just sad!
ReplyDeleteI found this article - Russian high-end department store got Cindy Crawford to model for their advertisement and she looks amazing, but how often do we see her modeling for the famous brands?
i do not know how much Photoshop was used but she looks stunning!
Here is the website link:
http://www.fabsugar.com/Pictures-Cindy-Crawford-Tsum-10864449
I wasn't surprised by the research findings Polina only because society has created this monster that women must live up to in maintaining their "beauty". Men, on the other hand, could care less and are more interesting in their families, jobs, and sports. I have to admit I do worry about aging. A day doesnt go by without me applying my cosmetics, doing my hair, and making sure I look presentable when I leave the house. If I could afford it when I get older, I could also see myself getting plastic surgery to keep my youthful appearance. I do feel that women are too stressed about their biological age. It was also one of the reasons why I cut my hair. I have had so many of my family members, even students, tell me how much younger I look with shorter hair. Even women I work with dread talking about how they are aging and each year they are getting older and older. It's as if we don't desire to see the inevitable, but it has to be faced. Maybe not in such a positive manner as it should be!!!
ReplyDeleteI also was not surprised by the research findings. Women always have had so much pressure on them to be young and beautiful. Aging is not seen in the most positive light for women. I do think women are worried about their biological age, and want to seem younger than they are. The media is always emphasizing different products and procedures to make women look younger so it is hard for them to be accepting of aging.
ReplyDeleteI think we can all agree that women are concerned about beauty when it comes to aging. This makes me sad and I think we need to be aware of this problem as a society. I remember in another class of mine, we had talked about what kind of activities our generation will be engaging in when we become the older population. I feel as though we are going to be scary looking. Not to sound funny, but I just feel like a lot of things we do to keep ourselves looking younger is silly and is going to have harmful affects when we are older. There are cosmetics for 9 year olds at Wal Mart! Can you imagine what these kind of products will do to the human skin over time? And we are starting at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteWe need to focus on true beauty, which are the things that are within us. I feel if we do that, we will lose this negative perspective on aging and see that it's our experiences that make us who we are, not what we can put on.
Leatrice, my mother is like you - make-up every day, good hair style, and if only she could afford she would be number one in line for the plastic surgery. When I ask her why she was so concerned with her physical appearance she told me that the idea of getting old was killing her and she did not like what she saw in the mirror every day. I can say that my mom is definitely not influenced by the media because she does not read Western magazines and she watches only movies on TV, however she is still way too concerned about the beauty. While I feel a man of her age (62) would care less!
ReplyDelete