NotNormativelyHuman 249
responsibilityandthepublicobligationtotakecareofthethosewhocan
no longer take care of themselves for the first time in U.S.-American
history.
In this way, "age" has entered the discourses of citizenship so that
elderly"bodiesgivesubstancetocitizenshipand...citizenshipmatters
forbodies"(BeaslyandBacchi337).However,thisprocess,reflectedin
the affable address "senior citizen," was not without its own dialectical
reversals.Beingcalleda"seniorcitizen"cametoprojectacivicidentity
that combined material benefits with public effacement, material gains
instatuswithlossesinthepublicdomain.Peopleidentifiedbythatterm
were regarded as having "bowed out" (actually having been "bowed
out")ofactiveparticipationintheroutinesoftherestofthecitizenship.
Such a diagnosis does not tell the whole story, however (hence the
past tense in the previous sentence). As the longevity revolution has
reached the United States, and more and more U.S. citizens live longer,
senior citizens have become the focus of commercial but also political
interests. Especially affluent, senior people are now "invited in," rather
than "bowed out," invited to take part in activities, preferably those
whichhaveapricetagattachedtothem.Newinterpellationsas"best"or
"silver agers," even though they circulate widely in the media and in
political contexts, do not, however, fundamentally change the
ambivalences of the civic identity surrounding "corporeal citizenship"
(Gabrielson and Parady 380). Even though mandatory retirement no
longer exists, people who have reached "a certain age" are expected to
withdraw from the labor market, leaving their jobs to the young with
families. Even such a middle-of-the-road newspaper as theWashington
Postpublished a piece suggesting that "workers may get fed up paying
so much of their paychecksto support retirees, many of whom (they
wouldnotice)werelivingquitecomfortably"(Samuelsonn.pag.).
Sincethe1980s,withtheascendencyofneoliberalpolitics,thecivic
identity of late life has been embroiled in the fierce competition for
resource allocation in depleted public budgets. Denouncing entitlement
programs as fiscally irresponsible outgrowth of the so-called Nanny
State (Harvey 2, 19-36; Martin et al. 120-26, 130), neoliberals have
found one of their favorite targets in Health Care programs for the
elderly (Medicare) and, of course, social security. The discursive
formation in which the debate about the new role of the state is often
verbalized are ruminations about the burden of "age." These debates