220 RüdigerKunow
the surface of the body. But the epidermization of senescence, starting
with the increasing biomedicalization of the human body, has had
effects that went much deeper, in a quite literal sense of the word: it
established a seemingly inseparable link between the appellation "age"
and the body: "Under the 'medical gaze', people become their bodies"
(Wahidin andPowelln.pag.),andin thebiomedicaldomainnopassing
ispossible.
Both passing and its failures affect women more so than men. They
often feelor are made to feel the alienating temporality of later life, the
"agechillfactor,"muchmoreacutelythanmen.Inthisconstellation,the
"coffin-maker's gaze" invoked by Horkheimer and Adorno in their
Dialectic of Enlightenmentis the "male gaze," a gaze that can become
an "age gaze," bestowing acknowledgment and cultural prestige on
"good looks" and young bodies. Another factor is the (still) longer
overall life expectancy of women which renders them more present
numerically in the public domain while also making them more
vulnerabletothehealthrisksoflaterlife.AsVirginiaWoolfnoted,late
lifeisacountrylargelypeopledbywomen,andoneaboutwhichpeople
tend to know very little, like about "a very ancient lady crossing the
street on the arm of a middle-aged woman" (RoomofOne'sOwn116).
And indeed, a cultural critique of "old age" must take into account the
multifarious ways and forms through which being or becoming "old" is
"normalized"ingenderedterms.
Among the first major theoretical projects addressing the gendered
nature of "age" in a systematic way was Simone de Beauvoir's La
Veillesse(1970); translated into English asThe Coming of Age(1972).
Even though de Beauvoir was soon criticized for her relentlessly
pessimistic view of women's later life, many feminists in the years to
come would continue to echo the negative ground tone of that book.
Perhaps the most prominent example here is Betty Friedan's
monumentalTheFountainofAge(1993), which replicates some of the
insights that sustained her earlier bestseller The Feminine Mystique
(1963)andappliesthemtothealienatingsocialandculturaltemporality
of women's lives. Friedan argues that there exists a pervasive "age
mystique"throughoutU.S.culture whichimplicateswomenmuchmore
than men and causes "those over sixty-five who can no longer 'pass' as
young" (see below on passing) to be kept from public view and be
"quarantinedlesttheycontaminate,inmindorbody,therestofsociety"