Mask and Shame of Ageing
Streszczenie
The concept of ageing as a mask refers to, according to M. Featherstone
and M. Hepworth, the tension between the identity and experiencing
one’s own, aging body. There is a growing disparity between the body
and “ I" in the elderly, which results from the fact that they lose “
symbolic capital" and do not accept their own bodies with their mental
and physical limitations. Old age exposes and becomes a symbolic
nudity, a source of shame in the culture full of images of beautiful,
young, physically fit and sexually attractive bodies. We compensate
shame and the loss of the symbolic vestment by rejuvenating our bodies
and suppressing negative emotions.
Old age has become painful, because people live longer than ever
before. To justify all treatments aimed at prolonging life, contemporary
culture has taken for granted the idea of Hufelad from 1897: “ Long life
has always been the main desire and goal of humanity" [1905, 6]. Now,
when we embark on prolonging life, we face the problems of
recognizing the sense of identity and its social expression in the process
of extended ageing, the relationship between our identity and our aging
body, which is still an existential project.
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