Age Identity

Age Identity

1. Age is sometimes looked at chronologically – as in your actual age. Alternatively, age is often looked at as a stage in the life course : childhood, youth, adulthood, and so on

   • The problem with looking at stages in the life course is that the ages at which they start and end vary – they can be seen as socially constructed. For example, when does childhood, end? When does middle age start? Individuals will also differ; some keep their ‘youth’ going for longer, others seem ‘old before their time'

2. Stages in the life course:

   • CHILDHOOD: This can be seen as socially constructed. In some cultures, ‘childhood’ is not seen as a period of innocence, dependence or vulnerability, as in the UK. For example, children will be working, and even fighting as armed soldiers, in some countries. Marriage may be considered at the age of 12 or 13, especially for girls. Even in the UK children were working in factories until the mid-nineteenth century.
     • Today, it is argued that we have a contradictory view with childhood in the UK. Children are either portrayed in the media as little angels and vulnerable victims or as little devils (delinquent or shocking). There is a generally held view that children ‘grow up’ more quickly today than previously, but actually, until the mid-twentieth century, childhood lasted for a shorter time, and people were usually working and even having families of their own before their eighteenth birthday.
       • Postman (1982) argues that childhood emerged only when the spread of literacy enabled adults to better shield children from various aspects of adult life – particularly certain aspects of sexuality and certain horrors associated with death and disease – so the ‘innocent’ child was created. He suggests that the emergence and spread of the media and visual culture in the twentieth century has brought about a decline in childhood and threatens, ultimately, to bring about its disappearance.
   • YOUTH: This tends to be associated with those between the ages of 12 and 25. In our culture, youth is socially constructed as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood and a time of rebellion/resistance. However, some cultures have no concept of ‘youth’ as a stage in the life course. Through initiation ceremonies, such as the one seen in the HAMAR TRIBE, childhood ends one day and adulthood begins.
     • Margaret Mead (1928) also argued that the ‘storm and stress’ associated with youth is culturally specific and not found in all cultures, though her findings and methodology have been questioned.

3. MIDDLEAGE: Very little is said about normal ‘adulthood’ by researchers. Young adulthood is normally characterised by career and family. Most people form relationships, have children and establish their careers during this time, often moving into their own home and becoming independent from their parents.

   • Middle age tends to be associated with those in their forties and fifties. Bradley (1996) argues it has a higher status than youth or old age – middle-aged people are running the country and hold power at work. However, middle age is also seen as a negative time, as ‘youth’ is lost and old age comes closer. It is sometimes associated with negative ideas, such as a ‘mid-life crisis’ and ‘empty nest syndrome’.

4. OLD AGE: When does old age start? Some say it starts at retirement age, but there is a lot of difference between a 65-year-old and an 85-year-old. UK culture admires youth and the beauty of youthful bodies. In contrast, ageing bodies represent ugliness and degeneration. Older people have been socialised into this view themselves.

   • The language used by older participants about their own identity in Corner’s (1999) study was mostly negative, reflecting that used by the media and popular culture. Participants described the problems of old age for society and the ‘burden’ of the ageing population. Participants were concerned with becoming a ‘burden’ themselves and the dominant stereotype they presented was of later life being a time of ill-health and dependency.