NotNormativelyHuman 213
nonetheless quite helpful in coming to terms with the cultural presence
of both. What needs to be emphasized here is that distinct and
autonomousrealitieswhichseemtohavenocontactandnorelationwith
one another are not only related but are mutually dependent. Fredric
Jameson has adroitly described this schema as "difference relates"
(Va lences of the Dialectic70) by which he means a particular form of
difference in which one term is needed to articulate the other's identity.
In our present context, this is to say that any proposition about being
youngisthereforealsoapropositionaboutbeingoldandinversely.One
needs"old"inordertobe"young."
The unity of opposites in which "age" and youth are imbricated
registersinU.S.andotherculturesoftheGlobalNorthinmultipleways,
especially in what I am here calling the "age chill factor." Thus, it has
become imperative for young people to insist on their being absolutely
even positively different from their elders, in short, their being young:
"Younger people, especially women, are warned of the dangers in store
and the need to engage in body work to maintain their appearances.
Older people who have preserved their youthful beauty, fitness and
energy are usually the subject of praise" (Featherstone and Hepworth
29).In orderto reinforcethatpoint, Western cultures offermaterialand
symbolic rewards for the disavowal or repression of age. Susan Sontag
noted thedialecticsatwork here:"The emotionalprivilegesthis society
confers upon youth stir up some anxiety about getting older in
everybody"(DoubleStandard285-86).
Among the cultural strategies making it possible to exorcize the
ghosts of "old age" is the more recent one to expand notions of
youthfulness so that they extend into later stages of the life course.
Examples of this recalibration of the life course in favor of youth are
invocations of "positive aging," of "a new age of old age," "60 is the
new 30," etc. These ideas (briefly touched upon earlier) emerged in the
1980s but their emphasis on active lifestyles and (financial)
independence are still very much with us today. They are "signs of a
radical change of values towards a new view of retirement and
senescenceasanemancipatoryphaseofthehumanlifecourse,withnew
identities and new forms of agency, are quite obvious in the United
Statestoday"(Donicht-Fluck153;mytrans.).Iftheyoffernewidentities
for the elderly and if they facilitate their continuing participation and
valuationinthepublicsphere,thereisnotmuchtobeheldagainstthem.