I've struggled to put some coherent thoughts together about this. I obviously have loads of thoughts about it but every statement I make has a contradiction, every question a dozen answers. I simply don't know where to start. I think I'll do some research and write an essay on the subject but meanwhile just want to begin asking the questions. Please ask questions with me. We can have a stab at answering them together.
Someone said she was put off participating in the project because of the label 'Older Woman' as she doesn't consider herself to be one. That's a perfectly fair comment. That's part of the query - do we think we are older and act accordingly?
It All Depends What You Are Doing - Doesn't It?
I think if you are a female painter, sculptor, stained glass producer etc. I imagine the pressures and opportunities you experience will be very different from women in performance art and customer facing jobs and media. I'm a singer and it doesn't matter which genre a female singer is engaged in, her appearance, image, dimensions, age - these things are materially important.
When do Other People See us as Older and How Do They Behave Towards Us?
I often hear many people in their 20s refer to people in their 50s or 60s as 'old'. Somehow I define 'old' differently and so adopt the word 'older'. I think of 'old' as being rigid or stuck, not growing or evolving, declining, contracting, narrowing, stiffening in mind and body, stopping, ceasing, welcoming the end of things. I think there are people of different ages who attain this 'old' state.
I don't write well. I'm tired. My health and hormones affect my functioning on so many levels but I'm putting this out, clumsy as it is, and hope others will help me explore these questions. I'll write more when I can
Kim
x
It's an interesting question. First of all, perhaps for a long time we have a tendency to think of "older" in relation to ourselves, in other words "older than us". Because apart from some creaking joints and so on, we just feel like ourselves, not a demographic.
ReplyDeleteBut the world defines us as older at certain points and what you say about context and role is very interesting. Perhaps if we are not in roles that have a "public" dimension, it accounts for those small moments of surprise when we catch sight of ourselves unexpectedly and realise we really are getting older.
I kind of agree with you, by the way, about older as opposed to old. Old seems to be a finite stage. I wrote about this briefly here: http://www.pilgrimsmoon.com/2011/06/15/how-old-is-old/
Thanks Tess. I read you on Pilgrims Moon and left the following comment:-
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me there has never been a generation of older women like us. Perhaps that is stating the obvious. We have lived through the experiences of having more choices and we continue to have new choices - for example, what, if anything, we do to cope with, travel with, or avoid the menopause. I'm studying at 55 building a practice and technique to devise and perform new pieces of performance art. Pieces that reflect all that is embodied at my age. No young person could do that, even if they wanted to. The financial and relationship choices we make these days as older women are different. I wonder how many of us are of independent means and how many rely on a male or female partner to support them. But we can create as older people and we often do so well through art or through dance as the Sadlers Wells Ballet Company, the Company of Elders, has shown us. Due to the change in the pension age I will probably need to work until I'm 70. I was looking forward to owning a cute little dog and having it sit alongside me whilst I knit cardigans and listen to radio plays but alas I'll have to wait quite some time before that becomes possible.
I've met older women who are playwrites, actors, singers, painters, makers of other art. I met one older woman who teaches underwater photography (diving and all). That's why I want to create new performance work. Something that reflects the lives contemporary older women are living, rather than the images so often portrayed - stereotypes, objects of ridicule, scorn or fear or just plain boring and ignorable. Hm. My pieces might be rather naughtier than that! Kim x