Compulsory Youthfulness: Intersections of Ableism and Ageism in “Successful Aging” Discourses
Main Article Content
Keywords
ageism, ableism, intersectionality
Abstract
This article forwards the theory of compulsory youthfulness as a way to explore how ableism, ageism, and other systems of oppression intersect to produce the societal mandate that people must remain youthful and non-disabled throughout the life course, particularly in a cultural context that holds successful aging as an ideal.
References
Angus, J., & Reeve, P. (2006). Ageism: A threat to “aging well” in the 21st century. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 25, 137-152. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0733464805285745
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestizo. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute.
Baker, T. A., Buchanan, N. T., Mingo, C. A., Roker, R., & Brown, C. S. (2015). Reconceptualizing successful aging among black women and the relevance of the strong black woman archetype. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 51-57. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu105
Ballenger, J. F. (2006). Self, senility, and Alzheimer’s disease in modern America: A history. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Berger, R. J. (2013). Introduction to disability studies. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Bowleg, L. (2008). When black + lesbian + woman ≠ black lesbian woman: The methodological challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles, 59, 312-325. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z
Butler, R.N. (1989). Dispelling ageism: The cross-cutting intervention. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 503, 138-147.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716289503001011
Calasanit, T. (2009). Theorizing feminist gerontology, sexuality, and beyond: An intersectional approach. In V. L. Bengston, D. Gans, N. M. Putney, & M. Silverstein (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed.) (pp. 471-485), New York, NY: Springer.
Calasanti, T. M., & Slevin, K. F. (2006). Introduction: Age matters. In T. M. Calasanti & K. F. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters: Re-aligning feminist thinking (pp. 1-18). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Campbell, F.K. (2001). Inciting legal fictions: Disability’s date with ontology and the ableist body of the law. Griffith Law Review, 10, 42-62.
Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of ableism. The production of disability and abledness. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230245181
Cohen, E. S. (1988). The elderly mystique: Constraints on the autonomy of the elderly with disabilities. The Gerontologist, 28, 24-31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/28.Suppl.24
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Combahee River Collective. (1977). The Combahee River Collective statement. Retrieved from http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241-1299. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Elman, J. P. (2014). Chronic youth: disability, sexuality, and U.S. media cultures of rehabilitation. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Erevelles, N. (2011). The color of violence: Reflecting on gender, race, and disability. In K. Q. Hall (Ed.), Feminist disability studies (pp. 117-135), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Fabbre, V. D. (2015). Gender transitions in later life: A queer perspective on successful aging. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 144-153. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu079
Flatt, M. A., Settersten, R. A., Ponsaran, R., Fishman, J. R. (2013). Are “anti-aging medicine” and “successful aging” two sides of the same coin? Views of anti-aging practitioners. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(6), 944-955. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt086
Garland-Thomson, R. (2002). Integrating disability, transforming feminist theory. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 1-32. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/NWS.2002.14.3.1
Havighurst, R. J. (1961). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 1, 8-13. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/1.1.8
Heller, T. & van Heumen, L. (2013). Disability and aging. In M. Wehmeyer (Ed.) Oxford handbook of positive psychology and disability. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398786.013.013.0025
Holstein, M. B., & Minkler, M. (2003). Self, society, and the “new gerontology.” The Gerontologist, 43, 787-796. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/43.6.787
Kafer, A. (2003). Compulsory bodies: Reflections on heterosexuality and able-bodiedness. Journal of Women’s History, 15(3), 77-89.
Katz, S., & Calasanti, T. (2015). Critical perspectives on successful aging: Does it “appeal more than it illuminates”? The Gerontologist, 55(1), 26-33.
Kay, K. (2015, August 1.) Do or dye: Why women daren’t go grey. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/01/why-women-dare-not-go-grey-politics-of-hair?CMP=share_btn_tw
Kelley-Moore, J. A. (2010). Disability and ageing: The social construction of causality. In D. Dannefer & C. Phillipson (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social gerontology (pp. 96-110). London: Sage. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446200933.n7
King, N. (2006). The lengthening list of oppressions: Age relations and the feminist study of inequality. In T. M. Calasanti & K. F. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters: Re-aligning feminist thinking (pp. 47-74). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Lightfoot, E. (2007). Disability. In J. A. Blackburn & C. N. Dulmus (Eds.), Handbook of gerontology: Evidence based approaches to theory, practice, and policy (pp. 201-229), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118269640.ch8
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
Martinson, M., & Berridge, C. (2015). Successful aging and its discontents: A systematic review of the social gerontology literature. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 58-69. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu037
Martinson, M., & Halpern, J. (2010). Ethical implications of the promotion of elder volunteerism: A critical perspective. Journal of Aging Studies, 25, 427-435. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2011.04.003
McRuer, R. (2006). Crip theory: Cultural signs of queerness and disability. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Minkler, M. (1990). Aging and disability: Behind and beyond stereotypes. Journal of Aging Studies, 4, 245-260. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0890-4065(90)90025-4
Minkler, M. & Fadem, P. (2002). “Successful aging:” A disability perspective. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 12(4), 229-235. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104420730201200402
Morell, C. M. (2003). Empowerment and long-living women: Return to the rejected body. Journal of Aging Studies, 17, 69-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0890-4065(02)00091-9
Mosevich, E. (2015). Can Sirona Biochem find the fountain of young? Equities. Retrieved from http://www.equities.com/editors-desk/stocks/healthcare/can-sirona-biochem-find-the-fountain-of-young
Ndopu, E., & Moore, D. (2012). On ableism within queer spaces, or, queering the “normal.” Pretty Queer. Retrieved from http://prettyqueer.com/2012/12/07/on-ableism-within-queer-spaces-or-queering-the-normal/
Old. (2013). In New Oxford American Dictionary.
Palmore, E.B. (1999) Ageism: Negative and positive. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Patsavas, A. (2014). Recovering a cripistemology of pain: Leaky bodies, connective tissue, and feeling discourse. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 8(2), 203-218. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0890-4065(02)00091-9
Price, M. (2015). The bodymind problem and the possibilities of pain. Hypatia, 30(1), 268-284. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12127
Portacolone, E. (2013). The notion of precariousness among older adults living alone in the U.S. Journal of Aging Studies, 27, 166-174. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2013.01.001
Priestley, M. (2003). Disability and Old Age. In M. Priestley (Ed). Disability. A life course approach (pp. 143-165). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs, 5(4), 631-660. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/493756
Ritzer, G. (2005). Enchanting a disenchanted world: Revolutionizing the means of consumption (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1998). Successful aging. New York, NY: Random House.
Rubinstein, R. L., & de Medeiros, K. (2015). “Successful aging,” gerontological theory, and neoliberalism: A qualitative critique. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 34-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu080
Slater, J. (2012). Youth for sale: Using critical disability perspectives to examine the embodiment of “youth.” Societies, 2, 195-209. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/soc2030195
Spade, D. (2007). Methodologies of trans resistance. In G. E. Haggerty & M. McGarry (Eds.), A companion to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies (pp. 237-261), Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Spade, D. (2011). Normal life: Administrative violence, critical trans politics, and the limits of law. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press.
Stein, J. (2015, June 29). Nip, tuck, or else: Why you’ll be getting cosmetic procedures even if you don’t really want to. Time, 40-48.
Stone, S. D. (2003). Disability, dependence, and old age: Problematic constructions. Canadian Journal on Aging, 22(1), 59-67. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0714980800003731
Verbrugge, L. M., & Yang, L. (2002). Aging with disability and disability with aging. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 12(4), 253-267. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104420730201200405
Warner, M. (1999). The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wendell, S. (1996). The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
World Health Organization. (2012). World health day 2012: Good health adds life to years. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2012/en/
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestizo. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute.
Baker, T. A., Buchanan, N. T., Mingo, C. A., Roker, R., & Brown, C. S. (2015). Reconceptualizing successful aging among black women and the relevance of the strong black woman archetype. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 51-57. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu105
Ballenger, J. F. (2006). Self, senility, and Alzheimer’s disease in modern America: A history. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.
Berger, R. J. (2013). Introduction to disability studies. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
Bowleg, L. (2008). When black + lesbian + woman ≠ black lesbian woman: The methodological challenges of qualitative and quantitative intersectionality research. Sex Roles, 59, 312-325. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9400-z
Butler, R.N. (1989). Dispelling ageism: The cross-cutting intervention. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 503, 138-147.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716289503001011
Calasanit, T. (2009). Theorizing feminist gerontology, sexuality, and beyond: An intersectional approach. In V. L. Bengston, D. Gans, N. M. Putney, & M. Silverstein (Eds.), Handbook of theories of aging (2nd ed.) (pp. 471-485), New York, NY: Springer.
Calasanti, T. M., & Slevin, K. F. (2006). Introduction: Age matters. In T. M. Calasanti & K. F. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters: Re-aligning feminist thinking (pp. 1-18). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Campbell, F.K. (2001). Inciting legal fictions: Disability’s date with ontology and the ableist body of the law. Griffith Law Review, 10, 42-62.
Campbell, F. K. (2009). Contours of ableism. The production of disability and abledness. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230245181
Cohen, E. S. (1988). The elderly mystique: Constraints on the autonomy of the elderly with disabilities. The Gerontologist, 28, 24-31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/28.Suppl.24
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Combahee River Collective. (1977). The Combahee River Collective statement. Retrieved from http://circuitous.org/scraps/combahee.html
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241-1299. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1229039
Elman, J. P. (2014). Chronic youth: disability, sexuality, and U.S. media cultures of rehabilitation. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Erevelles, N. (2011). The color of violence: Reflecting on gender, race, and disability. In K. Q. Hall (Ed.), Feminist disability studies (pp. 117-135), Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Fabbre, V. D. (2015). Gender transitions in later life: A queer perspective on successful aging. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 144-153. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu079
Flatt, M. A., Settersten, R. A., Ponsaran, R., Fishman, J. R. (2013). Are “anti-aging medicine” and “successful aging” two sides of the same coin? Views of anti-aging practitioners. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(6), 944-955. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt086
Garland-Thomson, R. (2002). Integrating disability, transforming feminist theory. NWSA Journal, 14(3), 1-32. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2979/NWS.2002.14.3.1
Havighurst, R. J. (1961). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 1, 8-13. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/1.1.8
Heller, T. & van Heumen, L. (2013). Disability and aging. In M. Wehmeyer (Ed.) Oxford handbook of positive psychology and disability. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398786.013.013.0025
Holstein, M. B., & Minkler, M. (2003). Self, society, and the “new gerontology.” The Gerontologist, 43, 787-796. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/43.6.787
Kafer, A. (2003). Compulsory bodies: Reflections on heterosexuality and able-bodiedness. Journal of Women’s History, 15(3), 77-89.
Katz, S., & Calasanti, T. (2015). Critical perspectives on successful aging: Does it “appeal more than it illuminates”? The Gerontologist, 55(1), 26-33.
Kay, K. (2015, August 1.) Do or dye: Why women daren’t go grey. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/01/why-women-dare-not-go-grey-politics-of-hair?CMP=share_btn_tw
Kelley-Moore, J. A. (2010). Disability and ageing: The social construction of causality. In D. Dannefer & C. Phillipson (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social gerontology (pp. 96-110). London: Sage. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446200933.n7
King, N. (2006). The lengthening list of oppressions: Age relations and the feminist study of inequality. In T. M. Calasanti & K. F. Slevin (Eds.), Age matters: Re-aligning feminist thinking (pp. 47-74). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Lightfoot, E. (2007). Disability. In J. A. Blackburn & C. N. Dulmus (Eds.), Handbook of gerontology: Evidence based approaches to theory, practice, and policy (pp. 201-229), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118269640.ch8
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press.
Martinson, M., & Berridge, C. (2015). Successful aging and its discontents: A systematic review of the social gerontology literature. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 58-69. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu037
Martinson, M., & Halpern, J. (2010). Ethical implications of the promotion of elder volunteerism: A critical perspective. Journal of Aging Studies, 25, 427-435. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2011.04.003
McRuer, R. (2006). Crip theory: Cultural signs of queerness and disability. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Minkler, M. (1990). Aging and disability: Behind and beyond stereotypes. Journal of Aging Studies, 4, 245-260. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0890-4065(90)90025-4
Minkler, M. & Fadem, P. (2002). “Successful aging:” A disability perspective. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 12(4), 229-235. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104420730201200402
Morell, C. M. (2003). Empowerment and long-living women: Return to the rejected body. Journal of Aging Studies, 17, 69-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0890-4065(02)00091-9
Mosevich, E. (2015). Can Sirona Biochem find the fountain of young? Equities. Retrieved from http://www.equities.com/editors-desk/stocks/healthcare/can-sirona-biochem-find-the-fountain-of-young
Ndopu, E., & Moore, D. (2012). On ableism within queer spaces, or, queering the “normal.” Pretty Queer. Retrieved from http://prettyqueer.com/2012/12/07/on-ableism-within-queer-spaces-or-queering-the-normal/
Old. (2013). In New Oxford American Dictionary.
Palmore, E.B. (1999) Ageism: Negative and positive. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Patsavas, A. (2014). Recovering a cripistemology of pain: Leaky bodies, connective tissue, and feeling discourse. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 8(2), 203-218. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0890-4065(02)00091-9
Price, M. (2015). The bodymind problem and the possibilities of pain. Hypatia, 30(1), 268-284. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12127
Portacolone, E. (2013). The notion of precariousness among older adults living alone in the U.S. Journal of Aging Studies, 27, 166-174. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2013.01.001
Priestley, M. (2003). Disability and Old Age. In M. Priestley (Ed). Disability. A life course approach (pp. 143-165). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Rich, A. (1980). Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence. Signs, 5(4), 631-660. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/493756
Ritzer, G. (2005). Enchanting a disenchanted world: Revolutionizing the means of consumption (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1998). Successful aging. New York, NY: Random House.
Rubinstein, R. L., & de Medeiros, K. (2015). “Successful aging,” gerontological theory, and neoliberalism: A qualitative critique. The Gerontologist, 55(1), 34-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu080
Slater, J. (2012). Youth for sale: Using critical disability perspectives to examine the embodiment of “youth.” Societies, 2, 195-209. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/soc2030195
Spade, D. (2007). Methodologies of trans resistance. In G. E. Haggerty & M. McGarry (Eds.), A companion to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies (pp. 237-261), Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Spade, D. (2011). Normal life: Administrative violence, critical trans politics, and the limits of law. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press.
Stein, J. (2015, June 29). Nip, tuck, or else: Why you’ll be getting cosmetic procedures even if you don’t really want to. Time, 40-48.
Stone, S. D. (2003). Disability, dependence, and old age: Problematic constructions. Canadian Journal on Aging, 22(1), 59-67. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0714980800003731
Verbrugge, L. M., & Yang, L. (2002). Aging with disability and disability with aging. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 12(4), 253-267. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104420730201200405
Warner, M. (1999). The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wendell, S. (1996). The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. New York, NY: Routledge.
World Health Organization. (2012). World health day 2012: Good health adds life to years. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2012/en/
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