The Aging Body Pierre Bourdieu Analysis

Introduction
Society’s youthful norms on beauty hold power over women’s relations to their embodiment. Over the course of this semester, Professor Griffin explored alternative interpretations of the aging body. One proposition made was that in regards to females and the aging body, older women are less concerned with their bodily appearance. In this context, ageism works to undermine the confidence of older women and lower their expectations of themselves. As a consequence, it produces a ‘giving in’ effect as a method to cope with the aging process. Another interpretation explored was how older women become more concerned with their bodily appearance and take great efforts to counter the effects of aging. To manage bodily aging meant to fight

against aging, followed by the disembodiment of the self, the transformation of physical appearance, and the fashioning of identity to age-appropriate expectations.
Neither proposition holds an accurate depiction of older women’s relations to bodily appearance. These perspectives are too narrow in focus; recent research has shown considerable variability regarding older women’s physical perceptions and experiences. Older women’s relations to embodiment change over time, and influenced by individual economic and social circumstances. The aim of this paper is to discuss the embodiment concerning the level of participation different social classes of women partakes in beauty practices in later life. The levels of economic and cultural capital woman, who are old and growing older, have, are associated with differential relations to the bodily appearance on three major dimensions: spending power, time horizon, and the use of physical appearance as a means of social distinction.
Theoretical Framework
Social structures are embodied in everyday actions and practices, whereas the internalization of embodiment is to motivate by particular social, and material desires.

Thus, our social existence is shaped by classificatory actions and desires managed by specific distinctions in our case social classes. These assumptions are central to Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory of practice. Bourdieu composed the term ‘habitus’ to encompass how the constitutions of principles subjectively shape dispositions, demeanors, perceptions, and evaluations. So the habitus is prejudiced to social practices and lifestyles.
Present day social status, values, and activities are centered on the consumption of goods and services. Thus, for women to claim existence in later life, they must participate in consumer societal practices on bodily appearance. Bourdieu argued that for women and their physical appearance; the attention devoted, time and effort invested, and the awareness of product benefits, are proportionate to material expenditure. Older women’s self-presentation can be intrinsically linked to quantifiable conditions used for maintaining the youthful self. Moreover, economic and cultural capitals validate certain fashions, tastes, and practices, to align with the current social structures, endorsing notions of materialization and bodily

appearance.
Bourdieu concentrated his research around the valuations of the body; beauty and body care that woman from different social classes encounters. He found that working-class women assigned a lower value on, and the investment put in, to bodily appearance than women from the upper class. Upper-class women were more inclined to appreciate their beauty and expended greater efforts to enhance it. Additionally, upper-class women attributed moral value to a well-groomed appearance. This moral value produced a divide between the two classes of women. Appearance used as an aging practice result in two distinctions. The first is that being neglectful of appearance suggests that the individual is unsuccessfully aging, whereas the second denotes that by being active and attentive to appearance indicated successful aging.
Bourdieu’s principle of habitus emphasizes the discrepancy formed from social class; different social classes partake in various methods of managing bodily decline. Though it devalues age as a differentiating principle, it is important to recognize that the value an initially attached to certain bodily practices often change with age. Therefore, this essay shall work in tandem with an integrated Bourdieusian framework involving age, and social class to understand the aging women’s embodied experience and bodily appearance.
Spending Power
The first dimension refers to the distance older women are from economic hardships. Studies have revealed a functional relation between spending power as a significant determinant regarding bodily appearance. The greater the income, or distance from poverty, the more invested on the self. Also, it was found that those with lower incomes spent much less time and money on beauty practices, for they appeared less concerned over the cosmetic needs of their bodies. Additionally, this is the most popular representation of older women since changes in the economy have resulted in older adults occupying positions of lowered socioeconomic status. Working-class women placed a higher value on their overall wellbeing, such as being loved, stability with regards to family, friends, and work, and good mental and physical health. Here, the ‘natural appearance’ was the preferred beauty practice, because of its minimal time and energy constraints.
These results reflect the significance social conditions have on women’s attitude toward bodily appearance. The low priority older working-class women have concerning their physical appearances, best understood in consideration of the opportunities and limitations of their social class. For working-class women, maintaining healthy relationships brought them satisfaction in later life, other than bodily aesthetics like the upper-class women. Women’s social conditions also account for distinctive dispositions in the workplace, for there is an emphasis on women to embody a certain level or model of attractiveness in the workplace.
Looks have always been more important to women, regardless of social distinction or economic hardship. The fashion industry is accountable for creating this culture of ‘beautification’ through the persistent attentions to beauty practices, which groomed women to adhering to prideful appearances; to always ‘look one’s best’. Sustaining these dispositions were believed to spill over into later life, so retaining these practices was worth the investment of time, effort, and money. To look younger is our individual and social responsibility, we should take action and make fashionable choices to disembody ourselves from our aging body.
Time horizons
For the purpose of this paper, the working definition of a time horizon will refer to the evaluation of a fixed point in time with context to objective processes.

The level of economic and cultural capital influenced the time horizon, sub-sequentially influencing women’s actions and decisions. In later life, the aging women’s dispositions were linked to attitudes about bodily appearance and the use of beauty enhancement practices. For working class women, short-term investments satisfied their aesthetic desires, such as clothing, jewelry, and make-up. The upper-class women adopted beauty practices with long-term returns because their economic capital was greater than that of the working-class

women.
Their capacity to cope with the exigencies of beauty culture involves such practices like nutrition supplements, skincare, hair-care, and physical activity, good diction, manner, and ‘feminine’ demeanor and posture. The reason for participating in these behaviors and processes originated from the belief that efforts taken in the present would then be rewarded in later life. In contrast to the aspirations and expectations of the working-class women who valued their investments towards ‘inner beauty’.
Bodily Appearance as a means of Social Distinction
The deterioration of beauty, manifested by wrinkles, age/liver spots, sagging skin, thinning hair, receding hairline, and fluctuating weight, are associated with the increasing of age. Women of both social distinctions collectively share a sense of reduced physical and sexual attractiveness, often backed by criticisms from their environment and peers. Older women’s confidences are undermined, and their expectations of themselves are thus lowered. Women’s embodied experiences with aging are consequently influenced by appearance-related changes and how other perceived them. The participants shaped their identities, whether consciously or not, by following the social norms of their social class.
Biological changes in bodily appearances, such as increasing physical frailty and reduced sensory perceptiveness, are seen as undeniable and unattractive indicators of aging. The image projected reveals the real self, and in the context of biological markers of aging, there is a betrayal of the true self. This made for a difficult adjustment for many perceived themselves as looking older than their internalized selves. Older women also dissociated from themselves by conforming to social youthful and beauty norms of bodily appearance. Eventually, their physical changes, brought on by aging, were accepted but only because they were otherwise powerless over biological aging and transformations.
Conclusion
Youthful norms of beauty are unattainable in the context of aging; being alive means to age. There is also a lack of studies exploring the significance of body image for women over 35 and the theories regarding body image and aging in the literature are mostly inaccurate. In reaction, social gerontologists should reassess the social norms of bodily appearance for older women, being more inclusive and active in their beauty ideals.
The aim of this study was to draw from women’s narratives and Bourdieu’s social theory. It explored our understanding of older women’s relations to bodily appearance and, more specifically, to study a sample of approximately the same age, but with different social conditions of existence, to reveal the influence of social stratification processes. Bourdieu’s framework helped us to identify the influences of social class and age-related conditions of existence on older women’s dispositions.
Since habitus is both structured and structuring, the age-related conceptions presented here are compelling examples of how older women both internalize a structure of age-norms and define and legitimize altered conceptions of bodily appearance in old age. The internalization of age-related norms presents an interesting avenue for future research, to understand how older women can maintain their social value in social contexts of omnipresent youthful ideals of beauty.