Ways of seeing: Older women looking at photographs of older women

Abstract

How do older women respond to photographs of older women? What do they notice, what do they appreciate and what do they dislike – and why? How do older women use photographs of older women in their ongoing process of negotiating the current phase of their life? Based on Q methodology, which as a mixed method combines interviews with participants’ ordering/ranking of a set of items (statements or images for example) and a subsequent factor analysis, this article discusses older women’s reception of portraits of older women. The article argues that in contrast to the ways older women are discursively framed in the media, they do not perceive portraits of women in their own age group as merely ‘old’, but supplement their viewing with a range of comments and opinions. Hence, the article argues that visibility in the media is an important tool for negotiating the process of ageing in contemporary culture.