Reseña de The relationships between cultural consumption, identity and holidays for the over 50s

The relationships between cultural consumption, identity and holidays for the over 50s de Kathrin Gerbe Resumen del Libro

Identity formation is a constant progress and never concluded. In the fast-moving age of communication technologies, sociologists have come to believe that everyone has more than one identity. These identities become more and more liquid, as race, gender and class lose importance while mediation by consumption is growing (Shilling 2003, Bauman 2001). With identities evolving from ‘self-discovery, personal growth and lifestyle choice’ (Morgan & Pritchard 2005, p. 32), old people are said to

derive their sense of identity in later life from the achievements of the past and what remains to be accomplished in the future rather than from a set of stereotypical—usually negative—attributes of old age. Unless they are ill or depressed, older people do not feel “old.”

(Biggs 1999, in Bradley & Longino 2001, p.18, also see Mansvelt 1997)

This leads me to an important concept at the heart of the revolution of holidays for the elderly: the idea of subjective age (Muller & O’Cass 2001). Subjective age can be seen as the self-perceived age, basically meaning: how old a person feels. Research has shown that the subjective age of the ‘new-age elderly’ (Schiffman & Sherman 1991, quoted in Mathur et al. 1998, p.265) is considerably lower than their chronological (actual) age: many feel up to 20 years younger and prefer activities for an even younger target group (Mathur et al. 1998). The older they are, the wider is the gap between subjective and chronological age.

It is questionable though if these new-age elderly actually feel younger, or if they simply would like to be perceived as younger as they are striving for the ideal of youth promoted by the media and in advertisements. Research has shown that new-age elderly women feel a higher need to stay young than traditional elderly women (Sherman et al. 2001). Yet disregarding the apparent positive self-image of today’s over 50s, society keeps a hegemonic view of ‘old’ people as frail, passive and dependent (Thornton 2002), and therefore in need of support and security.

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