Active Ageing and Outward Appearance: How Do Theoretical Conceptions Affect Self-Perception in Old Age?

Abstract

This article explores the central features behind the discourse of the aestheticization in Russia today, within the context of the 'active ageing' concept. The idea of the pension age as a period of life that should be used for personal growth and active participation in social life is nowadays being employed more and more frequently in NGO and mass-media projects that aim to improve elderly people’s quality of life. Some of these projects focus their attention on outward appearance in old age, claiming that they are trying to reform stereotypes about how the elderly should look in Russia. The aim of this research is to analyse the effect of this aestheticization on society’s understanding of appearance in old age. Outside of the Russian context, researchers have addressed the issue of appearance in old age as interrelated with gender, sexuality and identity. The demand for constant consideration of the body and physical appearance is understood as a tool to comply with the ideal of 'successful ageing' and is seen as another example of ageism. Clothes, hair and other external attributes must also be maintained in a specific way to achieve compliance with morally acceptable ways of ageing. Using these studies as a basis for our own research, in this article we use discourse analysis as a method of studying the way in which appearance is presented in a popular Russian online magazine for the elderly. Our analysis shows that the magazine’s articles present the aestheticization of the elderly’s appearance as providing access to social practices that were not available to them before. However, with these new opportunities comes the responsibility of the subject to constantly consider, maintain and understand oneself and the ageing body in order to conform to the new given standard.