The exterior territories, or surfaces, of the body have become symbols of
the self in late modernity. People are increasingly overwhelmed with messages
of youthful ideals: how to stay young or how to get old without signs of
ageing. However, studies of the effects of these images on people's own
experiences as they grow older seem to be lacking. The present paper reports
an empirical study which focuses on body image for men and women of
different ages. Four hypotheses, derived from social gerontological theories,
are developed and tested against data: the female beauty hypothesis, the
double marginality hypothesis, the ageing mask hypothesis and the ageless self
hypothesis. The survey, undertaken by 2,002 Swedes, reveals a response
pattern with basically positive body images that, for women, is increasingly
positive with age. The results are, thus, in sharp contrast to the gerontophobic
messages from consumer culture as well as contrary to some gerontological
theories.