Body image and aging: Older women and the embodiment of trauma

While the mental and emotional impacts of trauma have been well documented, the research concerning trauma and body image is largely focused on childhood sexual abuse and disordered eating, and little is known about older women's experiences and perspectives. Addressing this gap in the literature, this article examines how women make embodied sense of early and late life trauma and how these negative life events shape their body images over the life course. Using feminist theory and the concept of intimate terrorism, we analyze the strategies that older women use to cope with the embodied repercussions of adversity. Thus, we elucidate how the women consciously manipulated their bodies, employed various kinds of beauty work, turned to external outlets and sources of support, and engaged in internal processes of recovery in their efforts to emotionally and physically transcend the lasting consequences of traumatic events. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.