This book presents in-depth investigation of the language used about women and ageing in public
discourse and compares this with the language used by women to express their personal lived
experience of ageing. It takes a linguistic approach to identify how messages contained in
public discourse influence how individual women evaluate their own ageing and particularly
their ageing appearance. It begins by establishing the wider cultural context that produces
prevailing attitudes to women before turning to an analysis of representations of the ageing
female body in beauty and cosmetic advertising and the lifestyle media. The focus then moves to
a detailed investigation of women¿s own perceptions of the process of ageing and of their
ageing appearance as revealed through their personal narratives. The final chapters challenge
dominant attitudes to women and ageing by presenting two case studies of women who for
different reasons and in different ways refuse to conform to cultural expectations. This work
provides a platform for further academic research in the fields of linguistics gerontology
gender and media studies as well as offering meaningful applications in the wider domains of
business and advertising.
