How do non-Western societies envisage the relationship between the body and ageing? The present work aimed to shed light on this question by exploring how adult men and women of different ages living in Dakar, Senegal, view their bodies. A quantitative methodology was selected, and this study was carried out on a sample of 1,000 dwellers of the Senegalese capital, aged 20 and older. This sample was constructed using the quota method in order to strive for representativeness. Results indicate that appearance was highly important for Senegalese women and men, and for younger and older adults alike. As in Western cultures, beauty and youth were strongly connected. The large majority of Senegalese women and men were satisfied with their looks across the lifespan. However, older women were slightly less satisfied, consistent with the double standard hypothesis. Little discrepancy was found between felt age and chronological age throughout the entire lifecourse, arguing against an ageless self hypothesis in this African population. The mask of ageing hypothesis was also rejected, as men's and women's identification with their body did not diminish significantly across age. These observations from an African perspective call for greater attention to the ageing process in non-Western societies in order to challenge hypotheses developed in Western societies and understand more broadly the role of culture.

In this paper, we consider the ageing body and the ‘body techniques’ practised by older women within their yoga classes. The paper emphasises the importance of exploring alternative definitions of the human condition, how these are shaped and assembled through particular embodied practices which are realised personally and socially. Taking a contextualised phenomenological approach, older women's experiences are made visible through interview and participant observation. Unlike much sporting practice, the body techniques managed by the women did not emphasise sporting prowess but provided for an integration of body and mind. In the process, biological ageing was accepted yet the women maintained control over the process, troubling prevailing narratives of ageing, declining control and increasing weakness that are taken for granted in much of Western society. The paper highlights the significance of socially rooted ontological embodiment in understanding the ageing body and particular bodily practices.

Have changing demographics, increased life expectancy and findings about gender similarities and differences, altered portrayals of older people in American feature films during the past 65 years? We identified 3,038 films made between 1929 and 1995 in which actors and actresses, nominated at least once during their lifetimes for an Oscar award, appeared when aged 60 years or older. Academy Award nominees were selected because they offered a sample of ‘notable’ performers and an accessible database. We selected an eight per cent random sample for a content analysis of their roles. Throughout this period, men were more likely to be depicted as vigorous, employed and involved in same-gender friendships and adventure (whether as hero or villain). Women remained either peripheral to the action or were portrayed as rich dowagers, wives/mothers, or lonely spinsters. Despite changing gender roles in later life since the 1930s and despite social and economic changes for older Americans (earlier retirement age and better health are but two examples), their film roles have remained remarkably static in age and gender stereotyping. In feature films, the mask of ageing differs by gender. Male masks veil inactivity and physical changes, while female masks reveal ageist and sexist stereotypes.

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.

This paper critically assesses an increasing use of mask motifs to examine questions of identity in later life. Two approaches are subjected to detailed analysis, both of which propose distinctive answers to the challenge to identity management emerging from high or post modernity. First, consideration is given to a postmodern ‘mask of ageing’ (Featherstone and Hepworth 1989), key elements of which include consumer culture and the ageing body. Secondly, psychodynamic conceptions of masquerade and the use of personae are examined, whereby discussion centres on expanded personal potential in the second half of life and protection against a hostile social environment. A developmental model of social masking is proposed. Whilst there are superficial similarities in the use of masking, these traditions are shown to have radically different ideas concerning the core contradictions of an ageing identity. Implications for identity management and the status of body, midlifestyle and authenticity in later life, plus the need for subtlety in research methodology, are drawn out.