Interrogating Women’s Experience of Ageing: Reinforcing or Challenging Clichés?

The International Journal of the

Arts in Society: Annual Review

ARTSINSOCIETY.COM

VOLUME 9

__________________________________________________________________________

Interrogating Women's Experience of AgeingReinforcing or Challenging Clichés?

SUSAN HOGAN

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE ARTS IN SOCIETY: ANNUAL REVIEW www.artsinsociety.com

First published in 2015 in Champaign, Illinois, USA by Common Ground Publishing LLC www.commongroundpublishing.com

ISSN: 1833-1866

© 2015 (individual papers), the author(s) © 2015 (selection and editorial matter) Common Ground

All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the applicable copyright legislation, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. For permissions and other inquiries, please contact [email protected].

The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review is peer-reviewed, supported by rigorous processes of criterion- referenced article ranking and qualitative commentary, ensuring that only intellectual work of the greatest substance and highest significance is published.

The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review

Volume 9, 2015, www.artsinsociety.com, ISSN: 1833-1866

© Common Ground, Susan Hogan, All Rights Reserved

Permissions: [email protected]

Interrogating Women’s Experience of Ageing:

Reinforcing or Challenging Clichés?

Susan Hogan, University of Derby, UK

Abstract: The “Representing Self—Representing Ageing” initiative has been funded by the ESRC as part of the New Dynamics of Ageing cross-council research programme. It has consisted of four projects with older women using

participatory arts to enable women to articulate their experiences of ageing, and to create alternative images of ageing.

Methods have included the use of art elicitation, photo-diaries, film-booths, directed photography, and phototherapy.

Keywords: Women and Ageing, Feminism and Ageing, Picturing Ageing, Participatory Arts, Visual Research Methods

Fig. 1: I Feel Like a Prisoner of the Numbers. Claudia B. Kuntze.

Look at Me! Visual Representations of Women & Ageing

he Second World Assembly on Ageing (2003) recognised a need to challenge stereotyped

images of ageing and later life, particularly those related to older women. The aim of the

Representing Self; Representing Ageing (RSRA) project, (more commonly known as Look

at Me! Images of Women & Ageing), was to involve older women in the creation of visual

images, equipping them with a novel means of challenging persistent media stereotyping and

invisibility. The study asked how media and cultural representations of older people conveyed

ideas and expectations about age and gender.

The aims were to:

i. To enable older women drawn from different community settings to create their

own images of ageing using a variety of participatory visual methods;

T

THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE ARTS IN SOCIETY: ANNUAL REVIEW

ii. To explore the relationship between cultural and creative activity and later life well-

being; reflect upon the contribution of visual methods to participatory processes;

iii. To demonstrate the contribution of arts and humanities to critical gerontology;

iv. To enhance recognition, by policy makers and the wider public, of the authority,

wisdom and productivity of older women.

Fig. 2: Jude Grundy in Collaboration with Sue Hale, 2011.

The limited images that are popularly available typically present older people as diminutive,

dependent and frail, or as ageing 'positively' and belying their physical age. Turner (1984)

identified a ‘new puritanism’ – a tendency to attribute moral significance – indeed, to ascribe

goodness of character to those who have a beautiful healthy body. Critics of this emphasis on

healthy well-regulated bodies, and a movement towards ‘positive ageing’ (epitomised by seeing

older bodies engaged in traditionally youthful pursuits), view such ideology and rhetoric as

potentially ‘tyrannical’, worrying that problems associated with biological ageing may

increasingly be viewed as deviant or pathological. Blaikie, in polemical mode, asserts, ‘unless

you work on being ‘liberated’ from chronological destiny, you are less than normal’ (1999: 209).

Responding to a gauntlet thrown down by Phillipson, the need for rich qualitative research data

that interrogates the narratives that older women create to understand their embodied experience

of ageing, is apparent (Phillipson 1998:14).

Representations of ageing are particularly important to older women because their

experiences of ageing (and ageism) are deeply rooted in appearance (Bordo 1993). In particular,

the perception of their aged bodies makes them invisible in later life and can affect their social

status and access to resources and opportunities (Shilling 2011). For women especially, the

transcendence of age requires constant vigilance over our bodies (Hockey & James 2003:214).

2

HOGAN: INTERROGATING WOMEN’S EXPERIENCE OF AGEING

Women’s potential fertility is also of importance when they are looking for partners in so-called

middle age; many men are not interested in women they cannot reproduce with, so such women

may feel themselves subject to the effects of ageing earlier than men.

Older women’s invisibility is being explored and challenged by women both within popular

culture and through academic work, but still in limited ways: for example, television programmes

uncritically buy into the anti-ageing industry and focus on heterosexual women. There have been

a number of refreshing attempts to address this, such as Channel 4’s Coming of Age, though how

far the series moved beyond clichés is debatable.1

Fig. 3: Disappearing Woman

Using the Arts to Explore Older Identities

Female artists have produced new images resisting conventional stereotypes of older women:

Martin's (2003) Outrageous Agers, for example, was challenging in its photographic depiction of

older women. Practitioners and researchers are increasingly using visual methods as a tool for

personal empowerment and social critique (Banks & Morphy 1997; Pink 2001; Banks 2001; Ball

& Smith 1992; Hogan 2003; Pink 2006; Stanazak 2007; Rose 2007; Hogan & Pink 2010; Pink,

Hogan & Bird 2011; Pink, 2012; Spencer 2012) to name but a few. Such approaches offer a way

forward for older women’s participation beyond their typical involvement in research as users of

welfare services.

The Warren, Gott and Hogan study, Representing Self- Representing Ageing, asks how

media and cultural representations of older people have conveyed ideas and expectations about

age and gender. It aimed to enable older women, recruited in different ways, to create their own

images of ageing using a variety of visual and textual methods. In particular, the project has been

keen to reflect upon the relationship between cultural and creative activity and later life

1 Coming of Age was billed as ‘a week of programming dedicated to the over 60s in a bid to challenge some of the

preconceptions and stereotypes surrounding the lives of older people’, screened in November 2009 on Channel 4 in the

U.K., several of Channel 4’s favourite programmes turned their attention to the over 60’s.

3


wellbeing, and the contribution of visual ‘real life methods’ to participatory processes.

Furthermore, the project aimed to demonstrate the contribution of the arts and humanities to

critical gerontology. However, there is a potentially 'evangelical' strand, which perhaps requires

explicit acknowledgement, which is to enhance recognition of the authority, wisdom and

productivity of older women (point iv above).

What is an Older Woman?

Feminist theorists often emphasise that women ‘become’ women though a process of

socialisation (de Beauvoir, 1949) and reiterated practices (Butler, 1990), and challenge the notion

of ‘woman’ as an ‘immobile, stable, coherent, fixed, prediscursive, natural, and ahistorical’

category of meaning (Moi 1999:4). Or, as the philosopher Wittgenstein (1958) put it, ‘the

meaning of a word is its use in the language’.2 This post-structuralist turn in much feminist

theory is an attempt to resist biological determinist, and other reductive discourses, which

oppress women, and limit our practical and conceptual potential.

‘Woman’ as a universal category is problematic, as there are many social distinctions which

have an impact on women’s lived experience of being women. As Reinhart (1997: 74) notes,

‘Feminist theorists have long recognized that women represent a highly diversified group with

cross-cutting allegiances to work, family, race, class, religion, ethnic group, age group and

more.’ (I prefer the term ethnic allegiance to that of ‘race’). Elam (1994) has made the point that

‘a feminism that believes it knows what a woman is and what she can do both forecloses the

limitless possibilities of woman and misrepresents the various forms that social injustice can

take’ (Elam, 1994:32). Furthermore, as Gillies & Alldred (2002:35) point out, a focus on ‘the

heterogeneity of women’s experience dissolves many of the assumed commonalities that

feminism was built on.’

Whilst women may generally be materially disadvantaged in relation to men in Britain

today, and suffer from structural disadvantages (especially around the organisation of childbirth

and child-rearing, and pensions), Gillies & Alldred continue to avow that, ‘Even when specific

experiences or identities are shared by the researcher and researched, affinity in itself cannot be

regarded as an authoritative basis for representative research’ (2002:40). Drawing on the work of

Butler (1990), they suggest that ‘even when we do share identities, we cannot assume that

common identities produce common political perspectives’ (2002:42). They critique this idea

thus (2002:40):

Paradoxically, when an emphasis is placed on sameness, power differences are

highlighted in terms of whose version of the account is eventually told, even if the

research is presented as a co-construction. Fore-grounding commonality at the expense

of difference risks generating a falsely homogenised view of particular experiences, and

may result in an over-representation of issues that resonate with white, middle-class

researchers. Thus, although sharing an experience or standpoint may generate empathy

and a desire to speak on behalf of others, it can compromise critical reflexivity by

encouraging a reliance on unchallenged assumptions and inferences (Hurd and

McIntyre, 1996; Reay, 1996).

Further Ethical Dilemmas & the Reflexive Turn in Feminist Approaches to Participatory

Research

Edwards & Mauthner (2002:14) note that, ‘Ethics concerns the morality of human conduct. In

relation to social research, it refers to the moral deliberation, choice and accountability on the

part of researchers throughout the research process.’ The ethical dimension of this project is

2 Wittgenstein S43 in cited Moi 1999, p.7.

4


important. Birch et. al. (2002) ‘have identified the need in feminist qualitative research to

combine universal ethical standards with a more reflexive model of ethics, especially in relation

to participatory approaches involving sensitive topics and/or vulnerable groups’.3 But what does

this really mean and how should we apply this idea? Mauthner (1998) argues that reflexivity ‘is a

central tenet of a feminist methodology whereby the researcher documents the production of

knowledge and locates herself in the process’ (1998:49).4

Birtch, et. al. (2002:4) elaborate that this will include ‘an interest in the interplay between

public, social knowledge and private and personal lived experience.’ Gillies & Alldred argue

(2002:32) that ‘the goals of feminist research’ tend to be oriented towards better understanding or

representing women’s lived experience with ‘the explicitly political aim of challenging gender

oppression and improving women’s lives’ – research in this model becomes a ‘political tool to be

used strategically to make political interventions’.5

Gillies & Alldred (2002:32) complain that research ethics has tended to focus on how well

research participants are treated, but has not generally been ‘extended to encompass broader

questions about the ethics of knowledge itself…’ It would seem appropriate that, in a project

which seeks to explore the politics of representation, these processes form an integral part of the

research analysis.

The contingent nature of analysis needs to be highlighted (Burman 1992). Alldred & Gillies

(2002:146) point out that the research interview (and we do think that the ongoing art elicitation

workshop, which will be discussed, can be viewed as a form of extended interview, as well as an

opportunity to create imagery), ‘is not a clear window into the interviewee’s experience, rather it

is the joint production of an account by interviewer & interviewee through the dynamic

interaction between them’ (my italics). This, they assert, is now ‘widely accepted’ among

qualitative researchers, especially those with feminist convictions.

(Gillies & Alldred (2002:41) note that one strategy adopted by feminist researchers in

relation to the issue of representing others has been for researchers to ‘put themselves in the

picture’, ‘so that the research account is not a disembodied ‘view from nowhere’ (Fraser and

Nicholson 1990)’. As Birch & Miller (2002:93) put it,

In gathering narratives… the researcher must acknowledge their own part as co-

producer of such stories’ and ‘it is this recognition of the dynamics and constituent

nature of the research encounter in which data is generated that necessitates the need for

all participants to be visible in the research process’ (my italics).

Of course, detractors may claim ‘self-indulgence’, or challenge the researcher’s ‘objectivity’

or even ‘professionalism’. Nevertheless, a reflexive approach would seem to be definitively

justified in a research project of this nature, which has aspirations to be ‘participatory’.

‘First, the overall intention of specific representational research needs to be acknowledged

and clarified in terms of what might be achieved by speaking for or about ‘others’. Secondly, the

researcher’s position in relation to those whom she is representing needs to be thoroughly

explored, in terms of her own social, political, and personal interests, and the assumptions she

brings to her understanding of those she is researching (Gillies & Alldred 2002:42).

Birch and Miller (2002) assert that if ‘participatory’ research is to be more than a mere

semantic shift, then those participating must be clear about the project’s research aims

(2002:103) and open about the research process (2002:99).

3 Research Programme Proposal, ESRC New Dynamics of Ageing (Warren, Gott, Hogan, in collaboration with McManus & Martin 2009). 4 Reflexivity is an awareness of oneself in the field of action and one’s role in creating that situation: ‘Reflexivity is thus

distinct from reflectivity in its focus on the constitutive role of the self (Bloor & Wood 2006 pp.145-6). 5 Certainly, Oakley (1981) notes that, in ‘departing from conventional interviewing ethics’, she was concerned to give

‘the subjective situation of women greater visibility not only in sociology, but, more importantly, in society, than it has

traditionally had’ (p.48).

5


To see full and active participation from our research participants – throughout a project –

demands that not only we, but also those whose lives we research, share a common interest and

understanding of the research enterprise. For many this would require a fundamental shift in

ways in which research is conceptualized… [This] depends upon negotiation of an active

research relationship… (2002:103-104).

They also assert that research designs should identify ‘processes of participation’ (2002:99).

This has led to it facilitators keeping a reflective diary of the process, and actually participating

in some of the initial workshops. For example, I joined in with the initial introductory sessions of

the art elicitation group. Thus, the facilitator revealed something of herself and potentially put

herself on more on an equal footing with participants than is often the case in experiential work.

However, fuller participation was limited by the need to facilitate the group and ensure

participant safety through my vigilant responsiveness.6

Alldred & Gillies assert, rather without evidence, that research interview practices suggest to

participants that they ‘employ conventional modes of self-expression’ and so perform in

predictable ways (1992:146) and if there is any validity in their rather crude and unsubstantiated

claim, then the potential iconoclasm and unpredictability of using art materials must be viewed as

a potential asset. (The discourse analyst, Deb Cameron notes ‘saving face’, and respondents

interpreting what the researcher wants, as potential problems; however, she also outlines many

other ways that interview respondents can behave, pointing out that ‘resistances’ and

‘contradictory accounts’ can also yield important information which can be considered 2001:

148-157.)

Research Methods

The Representing Self—Representing Ageing initiative has brought together a team of researchers

from different disciplines, with a shared interest in ageing and gender, and a cultural

development agency (Eventus) which aims to use the transformative power of the arts 'to make a

difference to people and places', targeting the 23% of people identified by Arts Council England

as not currently engaged in the arts (Ace Insight Report 2008).7 The basic format of the project

included using a variety of participatory methods and different art forms working with four

separate groups of women.

The project as a whole was launched by a women-only film screening of Deirdre Fishel's

Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65. Women from the audience had the

opportunity after the screening to talk to a camera in a private booth about their views about late-

in-life sexuality and how it is portrayed.

Two of the groups were organised through Eventus. A group of women volunteers at a

historical site, located in a relatively deprived area of Sheffield, were identified. The Manor

Lodge is managed by an environmental social enterprise called Green Estate. A photographer,

Laura Pannack, well known for her powerful portraiture, was recruited to work with the women,

with a brief that would be developed informally with the women. The ‘Green Estate women’

6 There is considerable debate in psychotherapy literature on this point, and facilitators must vary. I personally find that if

I muse about my own material too much in sessions, I can get distracted from my role as facilitator (this is even the case in scrutinising my own emotional responses when I have not actively made a disclosure or image at all, and part of the

role of an analytic psychotherapist is to reflect on her own feelings about what is happening in the group in an ongoing

way), but in a feminist model it does feel inappropriate to maintain a completely ‘opaque’ approach, revealing absolutely nothing of oneself, so participating during initial ‘warm-up’ exercises before the group gets properly underway is a

compromise. 7 From the mission statement: www.eventus.org.uk. Eventus is a Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) of Arts Council England. It aims its work at the 23% of the population identified in Arts Council England’s research (Arts Audiences:

Insight, Arts Council England, 2008) as ‘not currently engaged in the arts’, primarily, though not exclusively, through

partnerships with non-arts organisations.

6

http://www.eventus.org.uk/


were photographed individually by Pannack in settings which they chose and in which they felt

at ease.

Figs. 4 & 5: Untitled (Elaine 1 & Elaine 2).

These two photographs 'read' well as a pair, as Elaine said she didn't like the first image as it

makes her look as though she was living in an institution; this dissatisfaction led to the outdoor

image.

A further group was recruited from older women in an ‘extra care’ scheme at the Guildford

Grange sheltered-housing project. Monica Fernandez, a fine-art photographer, was recruited to

work with this group of women. Of her general approach, she wrote,

“Without looking for an explanation or judgment, I frequently wonder and feel intrigued by

people’s behaviour, habits, dysfunctionalities, excesses, obsessions, orders and disorders.

Through my photography I observe and artistically re-interpret these mundane scenes, when the

ordinary becomes extraordinary and the grotesque and the beautiful might hug each other."8

Some of the results of her work with women from Guildford Grange made for slightly

uncomfortable viewing, and divided opinion amongst exhibition attendees, and the project team,

to the extent that Lorna and I have had difficulty agreeing the precise wording of this section.

Certainly, the juxtapositions created in some of the works are potentially disquieting. On the

other hand, elements of her work capture a youthful flamboyance and playfulness in her subjects,

which many exhibition attendees could identify with and said they had enjoyed. This work also

garnered some extreme reactions: that the women were degrading themselves, for example. Such

responses may point to societal ideals about age-appropriate behavior.

8 http://www.representing-ageing.com/

7

http://www.representing-ageing.com/


Fig. 6: Hermi.

A further set of art works emerged from an experiential art group, recruited largely via the

launch film-screening, project fliers distributed around the city centre and an advertisement in a

local paper. The group, met for 16 hours over an eight-week period and was facilitated by a

registered art therapist, (Susan Hogan), who is also trained in social-science research methods.

The group employed techniques from group-interactive art psychotherapy. The women used a

wide variety of art media to explore ageing, and were active in interrogating their own very

particular feelings about the process of ageing. This included articulating their feelings about

media and cultural representations of ageing women.

Fig 7: Cervix.

8


Although not immediately legible, these images of a cervix were hung in the first exhibition

venue, having been initially rejected by our curator. I argued to have the images included, as I

was worrying that the exhibition might be too anodyne, and wanted some intimate imagery to be

included. This is what the woman who made the image had to say about it:

The two images in question are of a cervix. I made the drawings because they are views

of women that are so very rarely discussed, even less frequently seen, in the media.

Indeed a cervix is still an area of anatomy many women have not seen. It struck me

recently, when I had some 'investigations' in that area, and watched the camera images

on-screen in the hospital, that it is a view I don't get even though it is a familiar sight to

the (male in my case) gynaecologist who will see it with a medical mind rather than an

aesthetic one. He seemed especially uninterested in how it looked and felt to me. Since

the menopause hit, the skin of my vagina has become thinner and more delicate....

One of the cervix images has a small drip of blood—I no longer bleed periodically—it

was a farewell to all that; the other image a kind of hello and welcome to none of that

and a new set of hormonal/non-hormonal effects.

I used oil pastels for the drawings—oil pastels give a lovely viscous quality to the

work.... This quality seemed to lend itself to the fleshiness and viscosity of

gynaecology.9

Perhaps not surprisingly, these images drew mixed audience responses, with one attendee

finding them “the most challenging work”, and another finding it “raw” and “painful”, and

uncomfortable viewing.

The most complex of the projects was perhaps Rosy Martin's six days of intense

phototherapy workshops (constituting about 42 hours of group work) with a group of self-

selected women who had responded to advertisements in the local paper, or via a leaflet left in

arts and other venues, including a local health club, which has a predominantly middle and older-

aged clientele.

Martin works in an intense way, and also required her participants to keep a photo-diary to

reflect on age and ageing in-between the first two sessions. Phototherapeutic techniques were

used to enable the women to examine and then 're-frame' their own narratives of age, and ageing.

The technique involves women working in pairs and deciding on specific scenarios to explore,

enact and re-interpret. The women take turns being the photographer and the client/performer.

Drawing on techniques from co-counseling and Gestalt psychotherapy, but using props to help

the performance of her story, each woman had the opportunity to explore a narrative, which was

photographed at various junctures. The control rests primarily with the person telling the story,

with the photographer acting very much under her instruction. Martin explains the process:

Working in pairs, each woman performed her stories, using her chosen clothes and props and

determined how she wanted to be represented. The woman being photographed asked for what

she wanted, and the photographer was supportive, encouraging and was ‘there for’ her partner as

witness, advocate, and nurturer, whilst photographing the process… It is a collaborative process

both sitter/protagonist and photographer work together to make the images’ (Martin 2011:2).

Martin stresses the psychotherapeutic dimension of her work, and emphasises that the

woman in the role of photographer offers a 'gaze of nurturance and permission' to the sitter. Each

narrative ended with images of transformation: the process as a whole enabling each woman to

find ways to transform aspects of her lived experience.

9 The artist's commentary. Personal correspondence Susan Hogan 2010.

9


Reflecting on her work, Martin (2011) added,

The re-enactment phototherapy sessions produce an atmosphere of playful creativity.

The roles are exchanged, so both have the opportunity to be in the picture, and to be the

photographer. The resulting images challenge stereotypes of ageing. The whole process

enabled each participant to find ways to transform her views of herself.

Fig 8: Jen in Collaboration with Barbara Harriott.

At the Workstation exhibition, these images of Jen were 'read' by some viewers as showing

that motherhood had been particularly stressful, but actually the middle image represents

multiple caring roles, and so it is interesting to see how easily the images can be read differently.

Of these, Jen said, "It's like a joy sandwich with some deep, dark, difficult stuff in the middle".

Images are inherently polysemous and subject to a diversity of potential meanings. As Hogan

(2011: 274) has pointed out,

The producers of culture arguably never have absolute control over how the artifact is

understood…. The ‘meaning’ of a cultural artifact, or ‘text’ broadly defined (be it an

image, or written text, or case study which uses a range of media), is always open to

interpretation. The ‘meaning’ of an artifact is generated by the reader of the artifact; the

audience is active in interpreting the material in relation to their existing knowledge and

understanding, which is particular. Although the actual content of the artifact may

suggest certain preferred readings. It is ‘read’ and understood by the reader in ‘relation

to its inter-textual space’ (Cowie 1977:20).

Hogan argues,

Alternative meanings are generated not by new content or a changed ‘consciousness’

but as a result of a different strategy for production of cultural knowledge in relation to

the inter-textual space… [This may result in the production of work that is] complex and

perhaps uncomfortable viewing but it is multidimensional, not easily read, and perhaps

actually resists, by its very complexity, reductive interpretation (2011: 275).

10


In the context of exhibitions, which images are selected and then how they are juxtaposed

creates narratives perhaps not intended by the artist (creating particular challenges for those

interested in participatory frameworks).

Four short documentary films have been produced on each of the projects by film-maker,

Clair Allam, and at most of the events, including the exhibitions, a film-crew has been on-hand to

capture participant and audience responses.

Exhibition Strategy—Some Further Musings

In a study about how older women feel about ageing processes, and representations of ageing in

the mass media, is it appropriate and useful to use exhibition and installation as a format for the

presentation of research results? Secondly, what are the advantages, if any?

A fairly traditional exhibition format could contain an installation space within it. One

characteristic of an installation is that it uses the total space and invites the viewer to move within

it. This physical moving into the discursive space is slightly different qualitatively to simply

looking at something on a wall or plinth; it is a more bodily engagement with the artwork and

offers a more immersive experience. It is potentially more challenging in its theatrical invitation

to the viewer to engage with the subject matter in an embodied way.

How the narrative flow unveils itself depends on the participant’s movement through the

space; one perspective may necessarily cut off another, and new configurations are generated by

being at different vantage points in the space. The format evokes uncertainty, anxiety perhaps,

and the entire work cannot be viewed from any particular vantage point...

Older women are heterogeneous. The participants’ ‘stories’ can be told using a multiplicity

of modalities: text fragments and images can be juxtaposed in a myriad of ways, and film clips

can be projected into the space.

How older women are depicted in society is a contested terrain and in constant flux; using an

exhibition format which withholds overarching interpretation or meta-analysis, yet affords the

opportunity for the stimulation of empathy in the viewer, would seem particularly appropriate, at

a point when audience responses will be ‘captured’ as part of the data-collection, and evaluation

process.

Above all, the installation format invites the viewer to engage in a dynamic process of

meaning-making which doesn’t necessarily offer any sort of closure with respect to the subject

matter.

Given that we wish the audience to respond to the work on film, this more conceptually open

format would seem particularly appropriate, and may be used in future exhibition of the work.

The initial exhibition in the Workstation took a more conventional format, though with some

interesting juxtapositions between the different groups of work, and textual accompaniments,

which took the form of quotations from participants, some of which were reproduced in large

text on the walls; the result was arguably a good compromise between those in the project team

who wanted the work to challenge and those who were more concerned to make the work

accessible—though we all wanted both.

Discussion

Qualitative research, with its emphasis on understanding the social world from the point of view

of the research participants themselves may now be, as Maynard, Ashar, Franks and Wray assert,

‘accepted an legitimate’ as a means of researching older people (2008:3). We have interrogated

how problematic the notion of the ‘older women’ is, and mused on the implications of different

exhibition strategies. Given the heterogeneous nature of the projects and participants, identifying

key findings was difficult. Key findings for the project overall were identified finally as follows

(Warren, Gott & Hogan 2012):

11


Women in their 50s–60s felt more pressure from media and advertising imagery

compared with participants in their 80–90s.

Eighty-eight per cent of visitors to the project exhibitions wanted to see more

images of older women, like those created through the project displayed in public.

Participants captured various experiences from continued public involvement,

friendships and fun to fears of increasing limitations and invisibility. Images

challenged stereotypes such as the ‘grumpy old woman’ and reflected rarely

represented grief and loss. Participants wanted to see more images of ‘ordinary’

older women who were still ‘making a contribution’.

Images produced by participants showed that women experience ageing at the site

of the body, for example in the form of wrinkles and greying hair.

Participatory visual methods gave women a sense of solidarity and ownership of the

research process, impacting on well-being and a feeling of public validation.

In summary, projects were rather varied. The different sets of images engaged different

critiques of images of old age. The two Eventus projects used professional photographers to work

with the participants. In this way, it was the photographer’s vision of old age and their

interpretation of the brief that influenced the style of the images produced. Photographer Monica

Fernandez produced a series of ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs with the Guildford Grange

residents, which aimed to satirise the ubiquitous ‘makeover’ format. The long wigs, red lipstick,

Hollywood style sunglasses become a parody of youthful glamour when worn by women in their

eighties and nineties. Taking these humorous images challenged the stereotype of the ‘grumpy

older woman’, and showed that the women were able to ‘have a laugh’ and engage in play. The

images also made some exhibition attendees distinctly uncomfortable as they confronted tropes

about dignified old age. Overall, these were the most popular images in our survey of exhibition

attendees however.

A Portrait Photographer, Laura Pannack, worked with the Green Estate volunteers to

produce a series of photographs. These images have muted colours and were taken using natural

light, giving some of the pictures a wistful tone in her attempts to capture the personalities of the

women.

In the art elicitation group which used a group-interactive art therapy format, most of the

women took a personal approach to the brief by creating images which reflected some of their

own feelings about ageing. There was a strong focus on the body. Other themes which were

depicted in the art work were: dealing with pressures to conform to societal expectations;

restrictions; invisibility; one’s sense of changing through the life course; family history; oneself

in relation to roles (caring and otherwise); fear of extreme old age; death, and the mismatch

between feeling young and looking old. There was no consensus within the group on the value of

youthful appearance, with several women preferring to see images of older women which

showed their character and purpose and that they were ‘still engaged in the world’ (Warren, Gott

& Hogan 2012). However, all participants in this workshop took some issue with media

personalities who presented a ‘false image’ through surgical or digital enhancement and felt this

put pressure on them to deny their own ageing.

Drawing on their photo-diaries, participants in the phototherapy workshops enacted scenes

from the past or imaginary futures producing a variety of work some of which was playful,

cathartic or painful. One woman said of this experience of sharing and talking about the images:

“it just felt like a joyful, celebratory kind of day... fantastic images and very strong, very vivid

colours.” The women bonded through the “positive reinforcement” they received from one

another, and an atmosphere of solidarity was evoked (Warren, Gott & Hogan 2012 p.5).

Across the projects, women collectively wanted to see more images of “ordinary”, “real” or

“natural” older women in the media who had not been surgically or digitally enhanced. They also

wanted to see different body shapes represented, older women looking powerful, independent

12


and being heard, and older women still “making a contribution”, volunteering or “being as active

as they can” so that “younger people won’t feel that fear of getting old”. Many exhibition

attendees also articulated their desire for “more truthful images of older women in the media”

(Warren, Gott & Hogan 2012 pp.6-8).

The project shows that using participatory visual methods engages research participants

more fully in the aims of the project as they feel they have ownership of the research process.

Participation also has to be well facilitated and enabled, it cannot just be assumed.

This study draws on analytical techniques and collaborative approaches developed within

visual anthropology, and participatory arts, to enable individuals or communities to

represent themselves or to challenge dominant representations. Guided by anthropologically-

informed theories of observation and visual representation (Ruby 2005; Pink 2004; Banks 2001),

practical documentary film may be used in a variety of ways, in conjunction with other art-

making techniques, as a part of a case-study in its own right, or to elicit further research

materials. The latter includes visual elicitation methods in which visual data, which has been

found or made by respondents, are used in conjunction with interviewing techniques to elicit

responses (Newbury 2005). From a research perspective, we might view the four separate

projects as complementary, and as generating different perspectives, as well as bringing different

issues for interrogation to the fore (Masson 2006; Woolley 2009; Sale et. al. 2002; Hodgkin

2008).

The findings of the groups are varied, complex and contradictory, so presentation strategies

which allow for multiple readings are perhaps appropriate. Some text-based research findings

will be produced, and Marcus Banks (2009) has talked about the value of using images in

research projects to create ‘a parallel argument’ or a ‘parallel discourse’ to the written text.

In using this approach, we are rejecting the problematic metaphor of triangulation, and

regard contradictory findings as potential starting points generating new theoretical formulations

(Masson, 2006; Erzberger & Prein, 1997). The advantage of running four different projects with

four quite different populations of older women, using different visual research techniques, is

that it affords the opportunity for the creation of multi-dimensional accounts; this approach may,

in the final analysis, lead to an open exploration of tensions inherent in contradictory accounts

between (and within) the groups leading to ‘dialogic’ explanations and analysis (Masson 2006)

rather than an ‘integrated’ or ‘tidy’ picture.

Future possibilities include the creation of an installation space, which invites the viewer to

move within it, offering more bodily engagement with the art work and a more immersive

experience.

Conclusion

Given the project’s epistemological openness to producing polysemous research, using a multi-

method approach should produce different types of data which can be contrasted, and juxtaposed,

in interesting ways, to produce a ‘collage’ of the areas under investigation. Taussig (1987), for

example, uses the analogy of a ‘mosaic’. Work from the projects has already been exhibited in a

variety of spaces, including a contemporary gallery (Workstation), shop fronts and in a hospital.

A professional curator, Alison Morton, arranged these exhibitions. The short films have been

screened at The Showroom Cinema and are available via the project website.10

Masson (2006) has suggested that 'we should think more in terms of ‘meshing’ or ‘linking’

than ‘integrating’ data and method’. She goes on to argue ‘for the development of ‘multi-nodal’

dialogic explanations that allow the distinctiveness of different methods and approaches to be

held in creative tension' (p.1).

10 http://www.representing-ageing.com/

13

http://www.representing-ageing.com/


Tensions were expressed within the research team between conflicting desires: the need to

communicate clearly for social policy makers; the desire not to be condescendingly over-

intellectual to the extent that the result might alienate some of the actual participants and the

aspiration to produce something challenging and potentially iconoclastic. The decision to employ

a professional curator for the initial exhibitions meant that the women participants did not have a

'hands-on' role in the organisation of the space, though they were consulted about the inclusion of

their images, the statements which accompanied them, and whether they wanted to be named or

not. This was partly pragmatic, as we had limited funding available (and had under-budgeted for

the realities of fuller-participation).

Cornwall & Jewkes (2000: 1) assert that the ‘key difference between participatory and

conventional methodologies lies in the location of power in the research process’. Participatory

approaches are those which broadly recognise the ‘particular expertise’ of people within

particular circumstances (Bennett & Roberts 2004); this could be because of local or particular

knowledge (Breitbart 2003). Some theorists conceptualise this as ‘active co-research’ between

researchers and participants (Wadsworth 1998) who are active in defining research problems

(Anyanwu 1988) and that, furthermore, participatory research ‘must be sharply distinguished

from conventional elitist research which treats people as objects of the research process’

(Tilakaratna 1990: 1). Certainly, this was one of the areas in which different members of the

research team had different understandings of the term 'participatory', and how this would

translate into concrete methods. Obviously, there are different levels of participation, and

potentially women's involvement in a curatorial process might have provided further

opportunities for learning and empowerment. How much control participants should retain over

the final products of research is a complex topic in its own right. It is worth research teams

spending time exploring concepts such as ‘participation’ at the outset of projects, and not

assuming that there is a common understanding.

Finally, a cursory view of the works produced will convince the viewer that this project had

helped to enrich the range of images of older women on offer. Watch our project films and see

the images: http://www.representing-ageing.com/

Acknowledgements

The Representing Self - Representing Ageing initiative has been funded by the ESRC as part of

the New Dynamics of Ageing cross-council research programme (grant number RES.356 25-

0040). Thanks to all the women who took part in the project and the project team members for

their insights, commitment and inspirational work: Claire Allam (filmmaker); Merryn Gott (co-

investigator); Clare McManus (Eventus); Alison Morton (curator); Naomi Richards (researcher);

Judith Taylor (project administrator), Lorna Warren (principal investigator) and also the

commissioned artists: Monica Fernandez; Rosy Martin, and Laura Pannack.

14


REFERENCES

Alldred, P. & Gillies, V. 1992. Eliciting Research Accounts: Re/producing Modern Subjects in

Mauthner, M., Birch, M., Jessop, J., and Miller, T. (eds.) Ethics in Qualitative Research.

London: Sage, 146-165.

Arber, S. & Ginn, J. 1995. Connecting Gender and Ageing: Changing Roles and Relationships

(Ageing & Later Life). Open University Press.

Baker, L. & Gringart, E. 2009. Body Image and Self-esteem in Older Adulthood. Ageing &

Society 29, 977-995. Cambridge University Press.

Ball, M. S., & Smith, G.W.H. 1992. Analysing Visual Data. London: Sage.

Banks, M. 2009. Slow Research, or Letting the Image Breathe. Paper. 1st International Visual

Methods Conference. ESRC Research Developer Initiative. 15-17 September.

University of Leeds.

Banks, M. 2003. Visual Methods in Social Research (2nd

edition). London: Sage.

Banks, M. 2001. Visual Methods in Social Research. London: Sage.

Banks, M. & Morphy, H. (eds.) 1997. Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven: Yale

University Press.

Beilin, R. 2005. Photo-elicitation and the Agricultural Landscape: ‘Seeing’ and ‘Telling’ about

Farming, Community and Place. Visual Studies. Vol. 20. No. 1. April. pp.56-68.

Bell, L. 1998. Public and Private Meanings in Diaries. Researching Family & Childcare in

Ribbens, J. & Edwards, R. (eds.) Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research. Public

Knowledge & Private Lives. London: Sage. pp.72-87.

Birch, M. and Miller, T. Encouraging Participation: Ethics and Responsibilities in Mauthner, M.,

Birch, M., Jessop, J., and Miller, T. (eds.) 1992. Ethics in Qualitative Research.


Birrin, J.E. & Benston, V.L. 1988. International Perspectives on Families, Ageing & Social

Support. NY:Springer.

Blaikie, A. 1999. Ageing and Popular Culture. Cambridge University Press.

Blinn, L. & Harrist, A. W. 1991. Combining Native Instant Photography and Photo-elucidation.

Visual Anthropology. 4, 175-92.

Burman, E. 1992. Feminism & Discourse in Developmental Psychology: Power, Subjectivity &

Interpretation. Feminism & Psychology 2 (1): 45-60.

Calasanti, T. 2010. Gender Relations & Applied Research on Ageing. The Gerentologist. Vol.

50. No. 6, 720-734.

Cameron, D. 2001. Working With Spoken Discourse. London: Sage.

Chapakis, W. 1986. Beauty Secrets: Women and the Politics of Appearance. London: The

Women’s Press.

Comfort, A. 1977. A Good Age. London: Mitchell Beazley.

Cornwall, A. & Jewkes, R. 2000. The Use of Qualitative Methods. What is Participatory

Research? Department of Anthropology, SOAS, University of London, London WC1H

0XG, England. 10 March 2000.

Cooper, B. 1988. Over the Hill. Reflections of Ageing Between Women. Freedom Califirnia.

Cruikshank, M. 2003. Learning to Be Old. Gender, Culture, and Ageing. Oxford: Rowman &

Littlefield Publishers Inc.

Dancy, J. 1985. Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford University Press.

de Beauvoir, S. 1972 Old Age, translated by P. O'Brian, London: André Deutsch.

Dickens, D. R. and Fontana, A. (eds.) 1994. Postmodernism & Social Inquiry. London: Fontana

& UCL Press

Duffy, L. M. 1998. Lovers, Loners, and Lifers: Sexuality in the Older Adult. Geriatrics. 53 (1).

pp. 66-9.

15


Edwards, R. & Mauthner, M. 2002. Ethics & Feminist Research: Theory & Practice in in

Mauthner, M., Birch, M., Jessop, J., and Miller, T. (eds.) 1992. Ethics in Qualitative

Research. London: Sage, 32-52.

Elam, D. 1994. Feminism & Deconstruction. London: Routledge.

Erzberger, C. & Prein, G. 1997. Triangulation: Validity and Empirically-based Hypothesis

Construction. Quality and Quantity, 31(2), 141-154.

Featherstone, M. and Wernick, A. (eds.) 1995. Images of Ageing. Cultural Representations of

Later Life. London: Routledge.

Featherstone, M. & Hepworth, M. 1991. The Mask of Ageing and the Postmodern Life Course in

Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M., Turner, B. S. The Body. Social Process and Cultural

Theory. London: Sage. pp.371-389.

Fishel, D. 2008. Still Doing It. The Intimate Lives of Women Over 60. New York.: Avery,

Penguin.

Fraser, N. and Nicholson, L. 1990. Social Criticism Without Philosophy in Nicholson, L (ed.),

Feminism/Postmodernism. London: Routledge.

Frazer, J. & Boffin T. 1991. Stolen Glances. Lesbians Take Photographs. London: Pandora.

Furman, F.K. 1997. Facing the Mirror: Older Women and Beauty Shop Culture. London:

Routelge.

Gauntlett, D. 2007. Creative Explorations: New Approaches to Identities and Audiences.

London: Routledge.

Gibson, D. 1998. Aged Care. Old Policies, New Problems. Cambridge University Press.

Gilleard, C. J. & Higgs, P. 2000. Cultures of Ageing: Self, Citizen, & the Body. Harlow: Prentice

Hall.

Gillies, V. & Alldred, P. 2002. The Ethics of Intention: Research as a Political Tool in Mauthner,

M., Birch, M., Jessop, J., and Miller, T. (eds.) 1992. Ethics in Qualitative Research.


Gott, M. 2005. Sexuality, Sexual Health & Ageing. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Gullette, M. M. 2004. Aged by Culture. The University of Chicago Press.

Hareven, T. K. 1995. Changing Images of Ageing and the Social Construction of the Life Course

in Featherstone, M. and Wernick, A. (eds.) Images of Ageing. Cultural Representations

of Later Life. London: Routledge.

Hogan, S. & Pink, S. 2012. Visualising Interior Worlds: Interdisciplinary Routes to Knowing in

Pink, S. (ed.) Advances in Visual Methodology. London: Sage. pp.230-248.

Hogan, S. 2011. Images of Broomhall, Sheffield. Urban Violence & Using the Arts as a Research

Aid. Visual Anthropology. Routledge. (Print ISSN: 0894-9468 Online ISSN: 1545-

5920) Vol. 24 (5) May. pp. 247-266.

Hogan, S. 2011. Postmodernist but Not Post-feminist! A Feminist Postmodernist Approach to

Working with New Mothers in Art Therapy & Postmodernism edited by Helene Burt.

London: JKP.

Hogan, S. & Pink, S. 2010. Routes to Interiorities: Art Therapy, Anthropology & Knowing in

Anthropology. Visual Anthropology. Routledge. (Print ISSN: 0894-9468 Online ISSN:

1545-5920). Vol. 23. (2) pp. 1-16.

Hogan, S. 2008. Angry Mothers in Art Therapy & Anger. Liebmann, M. (ed.). London: Jessica

Kingsley Press.

Hogan, S. (ed.) 2003. Gender Issues in Art Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Press.

Hogan, S. 1997. A Tasty Drop of Dragon’s Blood: Self-Identity, Sexuality & Motherhood in

Hogan, S. (ed.) Feminist Approaches to Art Therapy. London: Routledge.

Holliday, R. 1999. ‘The Comfort of Identity’. Sexualities. 2. (4), 475-549.

Howson, A. 2005. Embodying Gender. London: Sage

James, A. & Hockey, J. 2007. Embodying Health Identities. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

16


Katz, S. 1996. Disciplining Old Age. The Formation of Gerontological Knowledge. University of

Virginia Press.

Latham, A. 2004. Research and Writing Everyday Accounts of the City: An Introduction to the

Diary-photo-diary-interview method, in Knowles, C., and Sweetman, J. (eds.) Picturing

the Social Landscape: Visual Methods and the Sociological Imagination. London:

Routledge. pp.117-31.

Leder, D. (ed.) 1992. The Body in Medical Thought and Practice. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.

Leder, D. 1990. The Absent Body. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Masson, J. 2006. Mixing Methods in a Qualitatively Driven Way Qualitative Research. February

2006. vol. 6 no. 1 9-25.

Martin, R. 2011. Phototherapy Workshop Created and Led by Rosy Martin. Unpublished paper

supplied by author, May 2011.

Martin, R. 2006. Curating the Museum of Sources: Stilled Lives, Memory, Morality and the

Domestic Space in Newton, K. & Rolph, C. (eds.) Stilled: Contemporary Still Life

Photography by Women. A special edition of Ellipsis. Vol. 3. Iris & Photogallery,

Cardiff.

Martin, R. 2003. Challenging Invisibility – Outrageous Agers in Hogan, S. (ed.) Gender Issues in

Art Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Martin, R. 1999. Too Close to Home? n.paradoxa. Vol. 3. pp.73-80.

Mauthner, M. 1998. Bringing Silent Voices into Public Discourse: Researching Accounts of

Sister Relationships in in Ribbens, J. & Edwards, R. (eds.) Feminist Dilemmas in

Qualitative Research. Public Knowledge & Private Lives. London: Sage. pp.39-58.

Moi, T. 1999. What is a Woman? And Other Essays. Oxford University Press.

Newbury, D. 2005. Editorial: The Challenge of Visual Studies. Visual Studies. Vol. 20. No. 1.

April. pp.1-3.

Oakley, A. Fracture

Oakley, A. 1981. Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms in Roberts, H. 1981. Doing

Feminist Research. London: Routledge. pp.30-62.

Pearsall, M. 1997. The Other Within Us. Feminist Explorations of Women & Ageing. Colorado:

Westview Press.

Petit, P. 1995. Philosophy of Social Science in Honderich, T (ed.) The Oxford Companion to

Philosophy. Oxford University Press.

Pink, S. (ed.) 2012. Advances in Visual Methods. London: Sage.

Pink, S., Hogan, S. & Bird, J. (forthcoming 2011) Boundaries and Intersections - Using the Arts

in Research. Inscape: International Journal of Art Therapy, (ISSN: 1745-4832 (Paper)

1745-4840 (Online)). June 16 (1) pp.14-19.

Pink, S. 2007. The Future of Visual Ethnography. Engaging the Senses. London: Routledge.

Pink, S. 2007. Doing Visual Ethnography (2nd

edition). London: Sage.

Pink, S. 2004. Applied Visual Anthropology Social Intervention, Visual Methodologies and

Anthropology Theory. Visual Anthropology Review. Vol. 20. Number 1. pp.3-16,

Reichenberg-Ullman, J. 1992. Menopause Naturally. Natural Health. 22.2:75-80.

Reinharz, S. 1997. Friends or Foes. Gerontological and Feminist Theory in Pearsall, M. 1997.

The Other Within Us. Feminist Explorations of Women & Ageing. Colorado: Westview

Press. pp.73-94.

Roberts, H. (ed.) 1981. Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge.

Rose, G. 2007. Visual Methodologies. An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials.

London: Sage.

Ruby, J. 2005. The Last 20 Years of Visual Anthropology - a Critical Review. Visual Studies.

Vol. 20. No. 2, October. pp159-170.

Sontag, S. 1978. ‘The Double Standard of Ageing’ in Carver, V. & Liddiard, P. (eds.) An Ageing

Population. London: Hodder & Stoughton and also in Pearsall, M. 1997. The Other

17


Within Us. Feminist Explorations of Women & Ageing. Colorado: Westview Press.

pp.19-24.

Stake, R. E. 2000. The Case Study Method in Social Enquiry in Gomm, R., Hammersley, M. &

Foster, P. (eds.) 2000. Case Study Method. Key Issues, Key Texts. London: Sage.

Taussig, M. 1980. Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man. A Study in Terror and Healing.

The University of Chicago Press.

Turner, B. S. 1984. The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.

Vincent, J. 2003. Old Age. London: Routledge

Warren, L. Gott, M. & Hogan, S. 2012. NDA Programme Representing Self-Representing

Ageing Look at Me! Images of Women & Ageing. Project Report. January 2012.

Wellings, K., Field, J., Johnson., A. M. and Wadsworth, J. 1994. Sexual Behaviour in Britain:

The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. London: Penguin.

Wittgenstein, L. 1958. Philosophical Investigations. 3rd

edition. (Translated by G.E.M

Anscombe). Upper Saddle River.

Woodward, K. (ed.) 1999. Figuring Age. Women, Bodies, Generations. Bloomington: Indiana

University Press.

Zita, J. N. 2003. Heresy in the Female Body: The Rhetorics of Menopause in

J. Callahan ed. Menopause, a mid-life passage. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

pp.95-112.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susan Hogan: Professor, Cultural Studies and Art Therapy, School of Health, University of

Derby , Derbyshire, UK

18

The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review aims to create an intellectual frame of reference for the arts and arts practices, and to support an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of the arts in society. It is intended as a place for critical engagement, examination, and experimentation of ideas that connect the arts to their contexts in the world, on stage, in museums and galleries, on the streets, and in communities. The journal addresses the need for critical discussion on issues in the arts, and specifically as they are situated in the present-day contexts of globalization, and the social, economic and political artifacts of cultural homogenization and commodification.

Papers published in the journal range from the expansive and philosophical to finely grained analysis based on deep familiarity and understanding of a particular area of arts knowledge or arts practice. They bring into dialogue artists, theorists, policymakers, arts educators, to name a few of the stakeholders in this conversation. The journal is relevant to artists, curators, writers, theorists and policymakers with an interest in, and a concern for, arts practice, arts theory and research, curatorial

and museum studies, and arts education in any of its forms and in any of its sites.

The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review consists of articles considered to be of wide interest across the field. Four thematically focused journals also serve this knowledge community:

• The International Journal of Arts Education

• The International Journal of Arts Theory and History

• The International Journal of New Media, Technology and the Arts

• The International Journal of Social, Political and Community Agendas in the Arts

The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal.

ISSN 1833-1866

Documents

Interrogating Women’s Experience of Ageing: Reinforcing or Challenging Clichés?