Reading these five articles, I noticed the dates on some were not very current. We've come a long way in just the past two decades. As a fifty year old women, I have seen these changes unfold within my lifetime. I would even say that today's younger woman would not have experienced the discrimination that women of my age and older have faced. That said, here is what I gathered from the readings.
The first article by Casalanti, "Age Matters Realigning Feminist Thinking," discussed "...the system of inequality, based on age, that privileges the not-old at the expense of the old." (pg. 1) It states that feminist scholars give little attention to old age and women. Agreeing with Sontag's notion of the double standard of aging that says women are judged by their appearance. This article says that "successful ageing means not aging, not being "old," or at the very least, not looking old." (pg.2) The latest reference from this article is dated 2004. I would like to believe that much has changed in the past decade with regard to women's awareness and studies into later life issues. We have many elderly entering the social security system. AARP, the senior citizen's organization, has done well for its members in congress and continues to lobby hard on their behalf. As more enter this organization, their rights are greater protected.
The second reading by Margaret Cruikshank, "Learning to be Old; Gender, Culture, and Aging" resonated more with me. "Learning to be old means knowing that the way you age depends on where you live" (pg 8) was on point. As Americans we have learned that as we get older we are devalued. Being self-reliant, or as the book noted, "rugged individualism" is a very real part of our culture. I would say that as a group of hard working immigrants, most all of our ancestors have made the trip here and learned to work hard to succeed. We were required to do this alone, with only family for our support. Many elderly now facing what painter and writer Mary Meigs faced, with insensitive treatment by caregivers, still gives me great fright. I watched as my very strong, independent grandmother, a hardworking Italian immigrant, was placed in one of these homes since the state deemed her dementia in need of constant care. It became a place where she lost her dignity, being strapped down because she refused to be placed in diapers and demanded to use the bathroom. Ultimately, drugged and placed in a corner until death took her. Ms. Meigs stated, "The old person becomes a person who can be disciplined. Lessons you must learn to have the dignity of someone who can't be disciplined." (Beyond Recall, 104) The Eden Alternative nursing home model would be a good start if we saw it implemented on a nationwide scale. This reading was dated in the late 90s and early 20s, well before Obama care and the future our elderly now face with death panels.
"The Aging Women in Popular Film: Underrepresented, Unattractive, Unfriendly and Unintelligent" was written in 1997. Also, Prochuk's, "Hell is Older People" review on horror movies and old women depicts them as witches; ghoulish and decaying. I would say again that while some of these stereotypes will always exist, they are not exclusive to elderly, nor elder women in general. Every group has Hollywood to blame for refusing to shatter these images. Whether it is the dumb blond, the cranky old man, the decaying elderly woman, the illiterate muscle man, etc. Today, we have more choices on what we desire to watch, thus telling Hollywood we no longer want to be entertained by these negative images. Good examples are BET, Black Entertainment Television that successfully changed the image of minorities. Placing them in roles as doctors, lawyers and good wholesome families. As for the older groups, I myself enjoy The Lifetime Channel. Betty White is an awesome actress that made her earlier success as the dumb blond, even in the later role on The Golden Girls. She is beautiful, witty, and sexy and currently kicking butt in her new roles on cable television. Not bad for a woman in her nineties!
Finally, "The Intersection of Age and Gender" by Krekula discusses studies conducted in Sweden. This study is more recent, 2007, but in a country well known to be gender forward. They were probably the first to socially consider women equal. Yet, the findings were that women were considered "others" compared to men. By doing so, we therefore become invisible. I felt the findings were subjective and could have been twisted to become what was needed. In no way did I consider these studies close to the trends American women have had to face. In a nation where we supposedly have the greatest freedoms, you can see that just viewing the female body here is deemed offensive. Where Muslim countries have had female presidents/leaders, we lag way behind on equality. It is time to do more in depth studies, in our current times to see where we have been, where we are now and what we need to do again to move forward.
Personally, I feel this country is stagnant as to the progressive movement of women. As more immigrants from oppressive countries enter ours, democracy demands majority rule. These women have lived under the umbrella of submission for so long that having little freedom seems wrong. As a result, we have started to move in the wrong direction, losing footing on our ability to attain equal status. Small strides are finally being made, only after many set backs. It almost feels like a revolution like the one in the sixties needs to happen again to make demands for equality. I hope someday that my daughters live in a country where they earn the same pay as their male counterparts, have better access to medicine geared towards their well being, are given the ability to do what they want with their bodies without justification, have a strong female leader and role model to move them forward to equality and live without fear of losing their identity.
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