It is surprising that previous research on socio-cultural constructions of the baby boom generation and the portrayals of older people in print media introduced in the previous sections did not mention anything related to gender in the studied population. The general media viewed baby boomers or older adults as a homogeneous group of people and tended to neglect diversity among them. Comprehending older adults in a non-gendered fashion is problematic, as women and men age differently, and the varied ageing experiences of each gender differ across different societies or cultures.
Especially given the fact that women generally live longer than men and that the caregivers of older women are also primarily women, ageing can be regarded as a woman’s issue (Cohen 2002: 600). Treating and seeing older people uniformly might lead to reinforcing stereotypical images of them being frail, dependent and a social threat.
However, when casting an eye at electronic media, including television programmes and commercials in which images of older people are more visible, a few studies have addressed the intersection of gender and ageing. For instance, Vasil and Wass (1993) reviewed 28 studies that examined representations of the elderly in both electronic and print media in the United States. According to the results of the literature review, the elderly are widely misrepresented in two forms (Vasil and Wass 1993: 80). First, the elderly, especially older women, are underrepresented, which characterises the failure of media to adequately reflect the actual size of the elderly population. Vasil and Wass argue that underrepresentation implies that the elderly are unimportant and non-contributing members of society, thus they are less worthy of media attention. They further remark that the pronounced absence of elderly women in the media derives from two disadvantages, being old and being female, reflecting the so-called ‘double standard of ageing’ (England,
Kuhn & Gardner 1981; Sontag 1978). The second misrepresentation of the elderly in the mass media has to do with poor and inadequate depictions of older people that are usually negative and undeveloped, in which older people are typically marginalised.
Even though more than two decades have passed since Vasil and Wass (1993) conducted the aforementioned literature review, gendered ageism is still discernible in the findings of recent studies. Edström (2018) investigated all visible media output in the most circulated media within Sweden in order to capture the patterns of gender representation in ‘the media buzz’. Media buzz refers to ‘all images that we passively or actively take part in’ (Edström 2018:77), including news, feature stories, fiction and advertising. To capture the representation of gender and age in the media buzz, the study examined images of women and men from one day in major Swedish mainstream media from 1994, 2004 and 2014. The study results show that while there is a male/female balance in terms of numbers in the media buzz, the genres, topics or spheres are gendered. Traditional male dominance in the public sphere has persisted regardless of the increasing presence of women over time. Both men and women continue to become invisible as they age. The underrepresentation of older people is more salient for women; when 60-plus-year-old persons are visible in the media buzz, they are more likely to be male. The media buzz does not reflect the actual gender distribution of this age group, in which the number of women exceeds that of men. Indeed, women are more likely to be visible when they are younger, whereas men in their prime, between 30 and 44 years of age, outnumber other age groups. Edström concludes that aggregated visual patterns of gender and age appear to have been quite persistent over time, and structures of visibility in the media buzz not only contribute to ageism but are also still distinctly gendered (Edström 2018: 89).
The stereotyping of age and gender fostered by the media gains support also when assessing the Japanese media. According to a study analysing gender representation of older people (50+) in Japanese television advertisements, both genders are underrepresented in comparison to the demographic reality, but the underrepresentation is much more pronounced with females (Prieler et al. 2011). Older females appear in commercials less than half as often as older males, and the settings of most advertisements are stereotypical, with males portrayed at the workplace and females in the home.
Prieler et al. (2011: 412) claim that the remarkable underrepresentation of older women compared to their male counterparts sends the message that women are only valuable when they are young. Furthermore, they are concerned that the deviations made by television advertisements are likely to perpetuate an unfortunate combination of ageism and sexism (Prieler et al.
2011: 411). While the study results resemble previous studies from other countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Prieler et al.
point out that Japanese television advertisements portray older people somewhat in a distinctive way. Despite the underrepresentation relative to their actual proportion of the population and depictions of stereotypical
gender roles, when older men and women do appear in adds they are mostly in major roles and both genders are shown as equally important.
Somewhat contrasting findings on gendered ageism can be observed in a study from Finland, the other focus of the present study. Hytti, Lyyra and Lumme-Sandt (2010) sought to clarify what kinds of usages were introduced when Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in the country, wrote about older women, and what understandings the paper constructed about them based on these usages. An investigation of 80 articles in which older women (about 65+ years old) appeared revealed five dominant discourses: (1) as if whoever, (2) independent women, (3) granny, (4) breaking traditional roles and (5) youthful for one’s age (Hytti, Lyyra & Lumme-Sandt 2010: 316).
Though some degrading expressions like ‘granny’ exist, images of older women in Helsingin Sanomat proved for the most part to be heterogeneous and portray them in a positive light. They are constructed as active female citizens who are independent and enjoying lives on their own terms, and who break with their assigned roles and borders regarding age when they so desire.
The researchers contend that the problem discourse dominant in previous studies on older adults was seldom present in their research findings, and they concluded that the difficulties associated with population ageing are discussed in various ways from multiple viewpoints in the paper (Hytti et al. 2010: 321).
It can, however, be argued that their conclusion derives from the selected data focusing on articles about older women, articles that might deal with ageing at the individual level differently from ageing at the population level.
Furthermore, due to the limitation of the studied materials, it remains unknown whether the positive media construction applies also to older men or whether there are differences in images of older people based on gender.
A different observation about the underrepresentation of older women in the media is also evident in Ojala and Pietilä’s study (2010), which included a focus on gendered public discourses and representations of old age. According to their literature review of Finnish media studies, public discourses on and representations of old age mainly have to do with women and are constructed through women in both good and bad ways (Ojala & Pietilä 2010). Publicity about elderly females in the media is largely negative, implying their backwardness and marginality by using degrading expressions. As opposed to the unfavourable articulations regarding older women in the mainstream media, TV programmes and magazines intended for older audience depict older women in a positive manner, emphasising their physical and cultural activeness. Older men, on the other hand, are less visible in the Finnish media;
though elderly men are not depicted as negatively in public discourses as their female peers, positive portraits of older men are lacking as well. The conclusion of the study is that in the Finnish context, women represent ageing and old age more obviously than men do through their physical experiences, social interactions and public discourses, including media articulations.
The literature review on the intersection of gender and age in the media shows that while studies done in Western countries share a common trend of
identifying the underrepresentation of older adults, often only with negative connotations especially pronounced for older women, studies conducted in Japanese and Finnish settings uncovered partly different findings.
Considering that the baby boomers are regarded as re-shaping old age and later life, it is worth exploring whether media representations of ageing of the boomers differ from other ways in which older adults are traditionally underrepresented and how the media relate the gender of the boomers to discussions of ageing and old age. These questions have pronounced implications for Japanese and Finnish baby boomers, who are a bridge between the former and the next generations of older people. Are there distinguishable differences between Japan and Finland as to societal perceptions of gender and age? How are such differences mirrored in the writing of newspaper articles about ageing baby boomers? These are the questions to be addressed in the present study.
Media representations are cultural products, in which various media articulate a particular point by repeating certain perspectives, notions and values, thereby influencing self-identity, how other persons in society are viewed or approached and societal attitudes in general. Ageing and older people thus far have been represented in the media mainly as frail and dependent, and population ageing as a threat to society. Meanwhile, scholarly works on socio-cultural constructions of ageing baby boomers in the media are largely lacking, as previous studies have been biased towards the American and British context, in which the baby boomers tend to face criticism. The findings from these studies may not be relevant to Japanese and Finnish baby boomers, who have distinct generational characteristics and are on the threshold of old age.
The next chapter clarifies the aim of the study and the research questions being addressed when implementing the empirical part of the present study.
6 AIM OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
While chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 constitute the theoretical framework for implementing the empirical part of the study, this chapter integrates the arguments identified in the previous theoretical chapters to specify the aim of the study and to define the research questions.