Choosing Not To Be Old? Masks, Bodies and Identity Management in Later Life

TLDR

Postmodern scholarship frames ageing as a “mask of ageing” shaped by consumer culture and the ageing body, while psychodynamic theories view masquerade as a means to expand personal potential and protect against hostile social environments in later life. The study critically evaluates mask motifs in later life and proposes a developmental model of social masking. The authors analyze two approaches—postmodern and psychodynamic—to social masking, proposing a developmental model that addresses identity‑management challenges in high or postmodern contexts. The study finds that although masking practices share superficial similarities, the postmodern and psychodynamic traditions hold radically different views on ageing identity, leading to implications for identity management, body status, midlife lifestyle, authenticity, and methodological subtlety.

Abstract

This paper critically assesses an increasing use of mask motifs to examine questions of identity in later life. Two approaches are subjected to detailed analysis, both of which propose distinctive answers to the challenge to identity management emerging from high or post modernity. First, consideration is given to a postmodern ‘mask of ageing’ (Featherstone and Hepworth 1989), key elements of which include consumer culture and the ageing body. Secondly, psychodynamic conceptions of masquerade and the use of personae are examined, whereby discussion centres on expanded personal potential in the second half of life and protection against a hostile social environment. A developmental model of social masking is proposed. Whilst there are superficial similarities in the use of masking, these traditions are shown to have radically different ideas concerning the core contradictions of an ageing identity. Implications for identity management and the status of body, midlifestyle and authenticity in later life, plus the need for subtlety in research methodology, are drawn out.