Critical Approaches to Ageing Body Politics in the Works of Erica Jong

Ieva Stončikaitė

doi:10.3390/soc9020047

Abstract

The ways we read our bodies and bodily transformations are deeply inscribed in cultural meanings that vary across different historical times and societies. Even if the desire to achieve culturally imposed beauty standards and ideals is relevant to all age groups, anxieties about bodily decline become more pronounced as we approach the final stages of our lives. Physical changes are never just manifestations of cellular and organic loss, but can also be a source of troubled identifies and fragmented personalities caused by the mismatch between our external appearance and the inner perception of the self. This paper offers the longitudinal analysis of female processes of ageing from age-studies and feminist perspectives, as depicted in the works of Erica Jong, a contemporary American writer. It uncovers significant aspects of the pressures older women are subjected to in order to look more appealing in youth-oriented cultures, and demonstrates that the human body is often regarded as a conflicting site of perpetual ambiguities and troubled feelings caused by physical decay.

Highlights

Today’s increased life expectancy has exposed the human body to a longer period of bodily ageing and, to more complex perceptions of the body [1] (p. 100)
This paper offers the longitudinal analysis of female processes of ageing from age-studies and feminist perspectives, as depicted in the works of Erica Jong, a contemporary
By employing literary and cultural gerontology and feminist perspective, this paper has offered a longitudinal analysis of Erica Jong’s works, and has explored how current socio-culturally embedded perceptions of body have influenced her and her heroines’ notions of bodily ageing

Summary

Introduction

Today’s increased life expectancy has exposed the human body to a longer period of bodily ageing and, to more complex perceptions of the body [1] (p. 100). Physical changes are never just manifestations of cellular and organic loss, but can be a source of troubled identifies and fragmented personalities, caused by the mismatch between our external appearance and the inner perception of the self [2] Ageing affects both men and women, the process of growing older is more visible in women because of the ‘double standard’ [3]. The division is made in relation to the author’s biography and her changing attitudes towards the body If, in her earlier works, Jong already expressed worries about her exterior image, which are visible in her constant surveillance of her own body in order to adjust to Western beauty ideals of femininity and desirability, the concerns about the bodily image became more pronounced and fragmented as she steps into the second half of her life

Erica Jong’s Literary Universe

Body Politics in the Early Works of Erica Jong

Body Politics in Erica Jong’s Middle and Later Works

The Ambivalence about the Ageing Body in Erica Jong’s Later Works

Conclusions