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‘It's our turn to play’: performance of girlhood as a collective response to gendered ageism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

ANNE E. BARRETT  and
MIRIAM NAIMAN-SESSIONS
ANNE E. BARRETT*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
MIRIAM NAIMAN-SESSIONS
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
*
Address for correspondence: Anne Barrett, Department of Sociology, Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, 636 W. Call St., Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1121, USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In our society that values men over women and youth over old age, sexism and ageism intersect to erode women's status more rapidly and severely than men's. However, limited attention is given to women's responses to their devaluation, particularly collective efforts to either resist or accommodate dominant beliefs about ageing women. We examine membership in the Red Hat Society, an international organisation for middle-aged and older women, as a response to gendered ageism. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with members (N = 52), our analysis focuses on the group's ‘performance of girlhood’, which involves adopting children's social roles, dressing up and playing. We examine its resonance with a dominant cultural metaphor for old age as ‘second childhood’, illustrating how it not only provides opportunities for resistance to gendered ageism but also contributes to its entrenchment. The behaviours constitute a performative act that resists gendered ageism by increasing ageing women's visibility and asserting their right to leisure. However, its accommodative features reproduce inequality by valuing youth over old age and depicting older women as girls engaging in frivolous activities, which can be seen as obstructing social change.

Keywords

ageismwomen's organisationsleisure
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , April 2016 , pp. 764 - 784
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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