Grandma's Closet

When we talk about body image issues and eating disorders today, we are typically discussing such topics in relation to a younger generation. The models in the magazines and walking down the runways, the actresses on television, and the dolls in the toy boxes are all representations of women that, we think, only affect the self-esteem of little girls and teenagers. We forget, however, that an entirely other demographic is associated with such matters: older women. I began the creation of Grandma's Closet with exactly this group in mind, so as to explore the effects of Western hegemonic beauty standards on women ages 60 and over.

My three subjects—Gale, Shirley, and Pat—all offered raw and unique perspectives to this topic. Below is a brief analysis of my interviews with each woman, and how their opinions and words contributed to my understanding of this issue.

Gale: My interview with Ms. Giles revealed the intensity and depth of beauty standards for women in our society. Unlike the other two interviewees, she strongly voiced her belief that there is no problem with wanting to look a certain way; this is what she referred to as "taking care of yourself," throughout the interview. While she minimally discussed the need to take care of oneself for reasons pertaining to health, she did emphasize the desire and importance of doing so for reasons related to "looking one's best." In the end, Gale's overarching words of advice were to "utilize what you have" and "maintain yourself," which told me that she saw it as the responsibility of older women to keep up with society's standards, and pass those practices down to the younger generation of women.

Furhter, my interpretation of Gale's words were that the notions of what is "right" and "beautiful" in terms of appearance for women are as much deep-seated among the older generation as they are the younger generation. Just as young girls look at models and celebrities to guide them in what they should look like, older women hold an ideal image of beauty in their minds as well. Overall, Gale revealed the deep desire of some older women to remain forever young.

Shirley: As a former model in the fashion industry, my grandmother offered a unique perspective to the topic at hand. Since I, myself, have been modeling for nearly ten years, I was curious to discover if the expectations for models has at all changed since my grandmother's time in the industry. She revealed that while models nowadays are expected to be much thinner, back in her day they still had quite the high standards set for appearance, especially in terms of what they had to wear and the demographic they had to fit.

Unlike Gale, Shirley did recognize the issues of body image and eating disorders among women of her generation, noting that two-thirds of the women she knows "could very well be bulimic." She also stated, however, that she has noticed her demographic becoming more prevalant in the media, and that businesses are paying more attention to the older market. Though I agree, this attention could and seems to be raising the expectations for older women rather than supporting them in their journies of growing old. I think about the dozens of commercials I see each day for anti-aging cream and laser surgery, and understand that while older women are being targeted, it may be that this is worsening the situation. Aside from these marketers' messages, though, Shirley's view was that growing old is a blessing, and she revealed that some older women—no matter the outside pressure—do things simply to keep themselves happy and healthy, rather than intentionally young and "beautiful" by dominant society's standards.

Pat: As a professor of women's studies, I knew that Pat Oliver would be the right person to interview on this subject. Similar to my grandmother's perspective, Pat also talked extensively about the importance of and beauty in growing old. She became emotional during our interview when she talked about the significance of her wrinkles, each one representing a different action or emotion that she had elicited throughout her lifetime: laughter, amazement, sadness, worry. Professor Oliver discussed what the media doesn't in relation to older women, which is that growing old doesn't mean you have to "fix" or "change" yourself to remain young.

Aside from this point, Pat mentioned a critical component of our society's strict beauty standards for women that I had not thought of prior to our interview, and that is the double standard that exists between older men and women. She noted that men, like her dad, were and are "allowed" to be old or heavyset. There are many men in the spotlight today that fit this standard and that we continue to idolize simply because of their gender, including Clint Eastwood, Bernie Sanders, and George Clooney. When is the last time, however, that an 85 or even 54-year-old woman was idolized for her looks, wit, or charm? It is apparent that there are much less examples of this latter demographic in this situation. Overall, it appears that the depth of the issues surrounding body image and eating disrders among older women is more complex than even I had set out to discover, bringing in the factor of differences between expectations for each gender.

As the interviews and research reveals, body image issues and eating disorders among older women as a result of American society's beauty ideals is indeed a concern today. As children, we are told to "respect our elders," and, naturally, we look up to the previous generations of our respective families. What are the consequences, then, of these older generations being unable to accept themselves as beautiful no matter what society's standards, and being unable to embrace the physical changes that come with growing older? While it can be argued that such actions on the part of our elders will perpetuate the same issues among younger girls, the opposite can also be claimed as true: in a world where majority young females are represented in magazines and on screen, older women may feel the pressure to alter their appearances by harmful measures in order to keep up with the younger generation, as opposed to vice versa. It's a classic example of "What came first: the chicken or the egg?". The latter statement seemed to be the dominating belief of the women I interviewed, with the exception of Gale who saw it as older women's duties to influence younger women to want to look a certain way. No matter which way one sees it, however, it is clear that the seemingly uncompromosing beauty ideals of American soceity indeed negatively influence our older generation of women, just as they do the young. The question now is what can we do to change it?