Abstract
Individual responsibility for health is socio-culturally emphasized. This study used discourse analysis to examine 60 New Zealand adults' (aged 55-70) uptake of health promotion discourse in talk about health and ageing. Many participants attempted to defy or manage an ageing body through a regime of exercise, food management and other practices. The subject position of being in control of one's health counteracted anxieties about ageing; following strictures of health promotion provided a virtuous moral identity. However, there is a danger of feeling individually responsible for ill-health, or betrayed when health promotion's promises contradict the experience of an ageing body.
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