Introduction
In the midst of dramatic changes in the experience of growing older – expansions in the average length of our lives and improvements in the quality of our later years – the socio-cultural valuation of age remains constant: Youth, not old age, is the desired state. However, feminist perspectives point out that ageism intersects with sexism to create a double standard of ageing, a gendered ageism that more severely and rapidly erodes women's than men's social valuation as they age (Arber and Ginn Reference Arber and Ginn1991; Calasanti, Slevin and King Reference Calasanti, Slevin and King2006; Hurd Clarke Reference Hurd Clarke2011; McMullin Reference McMullin, Arber and Ginn1995). The double standard manifests in numerous ways, including the longer history and more negative bias of terms for old women (e.g. ‘hag’), the less frequent and less favourable media portrayals of older women, the view of middle and old age as occurring earlier for women, and the more negative view of signs of ageing (e.g. grey hair) in women than men (Barrett and von Rohr Reference Barrett and von Rohr2008; Covey Reference Covey1988; Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo Reference Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo2010; Lauzen and Dozier Reference Lauzen and Dozier2005; Lee, Carpenter and Meyers Reference Lee, Carpenter and Meyers2007). This context makes growing older particularly challenging for women, raising the issue of how they respond, individually or collectively, to the devaluation of older women.
Some studies address women's responses – their strategies to either resist or accommodate gendered ageism (e.g. Calasanti and Slevin Reference Calasanti and Slevin2001; Garnham Reference Garnham2014; Hurd Clarke and Griffin Reference Hurd Clarke and Griffin2008; Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo Reference Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo2010). These strategies reflect women's agency in responding to the devaluation of their age and gender group, an agency resonating with the negotiated, re-creative nature of gender captured by feminist descriptions of ‘doing gender’ or gender as performance (Butler Reference Butler1990; West and Zimmerman Reference West and Zimmerman1987). Drawing on performance of gender frameworks, Laz (Reference Laz1998, Reference Laz2003) argues that age, too, is a process and outcome of interactional work involving agency and emotion work. She finds that bodies are used in accomplishing age, with activities, energy and appearance central to this construction. However, the performance of age by middle-aged and older women has tended to be viewed in research as an individual-level response to gendered ageism. Limited research attention has been given to older women's performance of age within organisations that are themselves products (and producers) of age and gender structures.
Our study expands this literature by exploring one collective response to gendered ageism – involvement in the Red Hat Society (RHS), an international organisation with over a million members that aims both to provide middle-aged and older women a nurturing social network and to improve societal views of older women. RHS is already the focus of a number of studies (e.g. Lynch, Stalp and Radina Reference Lynch, Stalp, Radina, Johnson and Foster2007; Radina et al. Reference Radina, Lynch, Stalp and Manning2008; Stalp, Radina and Lynch Reference Stalp, Radina and Lynch2008; Stalp et al. Reference Stalp, Williams, Lynch and Radina2009; van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers Reference van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers2014). However, they tend to focus more on gender than age dimensions – leaving the organisation's focus on maintaining or recapturing youth under-examined. In exploring the age structures navigated by and reflected in the organisation, our analysis revealed a resonance between the group's activities and a dominant cultural metaphor of later life as ‘second childhood’. This image of later life is widespread – manifesting, for example, in advertisements, language, literature and everyday interactions with older adults (Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995). But the metaphor is largely unremarked in academic discourse, evidenced by the few studies examining it (Arluke and Levin Reference Arluke and Levin1982; Bowd Reference Bowd2003; Covey Reference Covey1992; Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995; Menon Reference Menon2012). These studies tend to focus on ‘deep old age’, highlighting children's and very old adults' shared dependent status (e.g. Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995). We argue that the metaphor of ‘second childhood’ draws another parallel between these life stages – freedom from responsibility – that gives it applicability to younger groups of older adults. Studies also give limited attention to the gendering of second childhood deriving from the constructions of gender in both childhood and later life. Our study explores the metaphor as it relates to RHS activities, with attention to its gendered nature. Our analyses reveal a ‘performance of girlhood’ involving adoption of children's roles, dress-up and play. We explore the implications of these performances for women's experiences of growing older and their potential for either reproducing or challenging gendered ageism.
Women's responses to gendered ageism
Research examining responses to gendered ageism tends to focus on individual responses, with most reflecting an accommodation of negative constructions of later life. The strategies aim to avoid the label ‘old’. Accommodative strategies include avoiding settings generating ageist interactions and altering appearance, behaviours or attitudes to avoid ageism (Garnham Reference Garnham2014; Hurd Clarke and Griffin Reference Hurd Clarke and Griffin2008; Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo Reference Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo2010; Minichiello, Browne and Kendig Reference Minichiello, Browne and Kendig2000). Providing an illustration of masking the appearance of age, beauty work – through cosmetics, hair dye and cosmetic procedures – is a response to women's feeling of invisibility with age, pressure to attract or retain romantic partners, and need to counter ageism in the workplace (Hurd Clarke and Griffin Reference Hurd Clarke and Griffin2008; Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo Reference Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo2010). Other accommodative strategies focus on activities rather than appearance, such as remaining physically, mentally and socially active – a ‘busy body’ that meets the intertwined cultural mandates to be active and take responsibility for one's own wellbeing in later life (Ekerdt Reference Ekerdt1986; Katz Reference Katz2000). Cultivating youthful self-images by managing appearance or behaviour often is accompanied by changes in perceptions that reinforce age and gender inequality. For example, we delay the perceived onset of devalued stages of life as we age – a strategy that avoids self-labelling as ‘old’ (Toothman and Barrett Reference Toothman and Barrett2011). While less common, some reactions negotiate more positive ageing images. Examples include ‘going grey’, resisting the pressure to remain ‘busy’, and embracing both menopause and the label ‘old’ (Calasanti and Slevin Reference Calasanti and Slevin2001; Greer Reference Greer1991; Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo Reference Hurd Clarke and Korotchendo2010; Katz Reference Katz2000).
Studies tend to focus on individual responses; however, collective ones are important to consider, including activities in age- and gender-segregated organisations. Within the context of gendered ageism, these settings provide a degree of protection against unequal social exchanges (Jerrome Reference Jerrome1992). They also can provide a sense of freedom to violate age norms (Cheang Reference Cheang2002; Hochschild Reference Hochschild1973). As Hochschild (Reference Hochschild1973: 140) noted in her classic study of an old-age community, ‘in a society that raises an eyebrow at those who do not “act their age”, the subculture encourages the old to sing, to flirt, to joke’. The ease of interacting with age peers is particularly important when life experiences of successive cohorts differ due to rapid social change – the context currently encountered by adults in late middle and old age (Jerrome Reference Jerrome1992). Social organisations may be especially influential in shaping women's experiences of ageing. Women are more likely than men to belong to clubs that either are segregated by gender or offer contact with a limited age range (Jerrome Reference Jerrome1992; Popielarz Reference Popielarz1999). Although research finds little evidence of overt gender or age consciousness in these organisations, they are likely to be contexts for constructing meanings in experiences of gendered ageing (Jerrome Reference Jerrome1992).
Work focusing on women's collective reactions to ageism include not only the more visible and stereotypical activist responses but also the more everyday ones that are highlighted by feminist research on ageing. An example of the more visibly activist response is provided by the Raging Grannies – a group organising formal protests to redress injustice, such as environmental degradation. Illustrating a strategic use of negative images of ageing women, group members – dressing in stereotypical ‘granny attire’ – see activism as an extension of their traditional care-work as grandmothers through which they focus on bettering the lives of future generations (Roy Reference Roy2004, Reference Roy2007; Sawchuk Reference Sawchuk2009). Drawing on interviews, Sawchuk (Reference Sawchuk2009) finds that members see age as empowering and the grandmother identity as protective, both of which allow them to embrace ageing. Providing an example of a more everyday setting within which responses to gendered ageism manifest is Furman's (Reference Furman1997) ethnographic study of a beauty salon serving older women that reveals the creation of a caring community by those sharing a devalued status. Women bonded through humour about ageing's inevitability that ‘does not reveal a resigned attitude, however; rather, it pokes fun at our society's unrealistic expectation that women remain forever the icons of youthful beauty and sexuality’ (Furman Reference Furman1997: 38).
Occupying a mid-point on the continuum of overt activist to everyday collective responses to gendered ageism is the RHS. The organisation began in 1998 when Sue Ellen Cooper began giving her middle-aged girlfriends birthday gifts of a red hat and copy of ‘Warning’ by Jenny Joseph – a poem describing a woman's violation of minor social norms in later life, such as wearing red and purple colours that do not match or picking flowers in someone else's garden (Cooper Reference Cooper2004). These gifts came to be seen as a symbolic induction to ageing within her friendship circle. The group's publicity contributed to the formal founding of RHS that now has chapters in over 30 countries. The organisation pursues its goals of cultivating a supportive network for middle-aged and older women and creating more positive images of ageing women by engaging as a group in a conspicuous consumption of leisure, wearing attire that draws attention – red hats and purple dresses.
Over a dozen papers have examined RHS, with a recent one providing a useful categorisation into three groups (van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers Reference van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers2014). One set of studies examines the role of the organisation in helping women cope with the stresses of ageing (Barrett, Pai and Redmond Reference Barrett, Pai and Redmond2012; Hutchinson et al. Reference Hutchinson, Yarnal, Staffordson and Kerstetter2008; Kerstetter et al. Reference Kerstetter, Yarnal, Son, Yen and Baker2008; Son, Yarnal and Kerstetter Reference Son, Yarnal and Kerstetter2010; Son et al. Reference Son, Kerstetter, Yarnal and Baker2007). For example, a Barrett, Pai and Redmond (Reference Barrett, Pai and Redmond2012) argue that RHS can be seen as a gendered subculture of ageing that generates membership benefits unique to age- and gender-segregated groups. A second set of studies examines RHS from the perspective of play and leisure (Yarnal Reference Yarnal2006; Yarnal, Chick and Kerstetter Reference Yarnal, Chick and Kerstetter2008; Yarnal, Son and Liechty Reference Yarnal, Son and Liechty2011; Yarnal et al. Reference Yarnal, Kerstetter, Chick, Hutchinson and Kuschner2009). As illustrations, one study examines the role of play in providing an opportunity for ‘masking’ that permits an expression of members' true selves (Yarnal et al. Reference Yarnal, Kerstetter, Chick, Hutchinson and Kuschner2009), while another considers how Red Hat attire is an embodiment of leisure itself (Yarnal, Son and Liechty Reference Yarnal, Son and Liechty2011). A third set of studies examines the group's negotiation of negative stereotypes of ageing women (Lynch, Stalp and Radina Reference Lynch, Stalp, Radina, Johnson and Foster2007; Radina et al. Reference Radina, Lynch, Stalp and Manning2008; Stalp, Radina and Lynch Reference Stalp, Radina and Lynch2008; Stalp et al. Reference Stalp, Williams, Lynch and Radina2009; van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers Reference van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers2014). For example, Lynch, Stalp and Radina (Reference Lynch, Stalp, Radina, Johnson and Foster2007) find that the group's use of attention-garnering attire represents a means of managing the spoiled identity (Goffman Reference Goffman1963) of being an older woman. Providing another example, van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers (Reference van Bohemen, van Zoonen and Aupers2014) examine the group's articulation of fun as both a challenge to and celebration of hegemonic femininity.
A relatively unexamined aspect of the group is its adoption of behaviours and orientations associated with childhood, specifically girlhood. We argue that theoretical leverage on this aspect can be gained by examining its resonance with the cultural metaphor of old age as second childhood. This metaphor, evidenced in historic and contemporary cultural products ranging from literature and art to jokes and advertisements, depicts both children and older adults as free of not only responsibility but also autonomy (Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995). With historic roots in industrialisation and the rise of individualism, the image draws a parallel between children and older adults in their lack of attachment to paid work, resulting in their shared dependent status. The metaphor of later life as second childhood further marginalises older adults through cultural constructions of childhood that have increasingly emphasised differences, and minimised similarities, between children and adults (Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995).
Although second childhood is a pervasive image, relatively few studies explore either its manifestation in cultural products or implications for experiences of ageing (Arluke and Levin Reference Arluke and Levin1982; Bowd Reference Bowd2003; Covey Reference Covey1992; Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995; Menon Reference Menon2012). Further, studies of its implications tend to focus on features of deep old age, namely dependency (Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995; Menon Reference Menon2012). For example, Hockey and James’ (Reference Hockey and James1993) study of older adults in a residential home revealed verbal imagery reflective of the second childhood metaphor, accompanied by care workers' infantilising treatment of residents that denied their personhood. However, the metaphor can be applied, perhaps through different processes and with different consequences, to earlier periods of later life, when dependency is often less of an issue. For adults in young-old age, second childhood may not connote dependency but rather another parallel implied by the metaphor – freedom from responsibility. Presumably free of prior responsibilities to employers or family members, adults in later life can pursue their own interests. This freedom is accompanied by lesser accountability for their actions, illustrated by the greater tolerance of minor social violations by children and older adults (Cahill Reference Cahill1987). In addition to different aspects of the metaphor having relevance in earlier compared with later old age, older adults' agency in its use may differ. Rather than having the metaphor applied to them, as in deep old age, younger groups of older adults may strategically employ it to resist their marginalised status – perhaps to highlight their youth (i.e. their ‘not old’ status) or to justify their claims to leisure. Both are desired goals for many older women, given their age-related status losses and the constraints on their leisure time over years of marriage and child-rearing (Shaw Reference Shaw2001). However, analyses of second childhood have given limited attention to its intersection with gendered constructions of both childhood and later life.
In sum, our study expands prior work on RHS by examining one particular feature of the organisation's response to gendered ageism – its adoption of behaviours and orientations associated with youth. We argue that the organisation strategically selects elements of girlhood, enabling members to resist ageism through increased visibility and freedom from social obligations. We explore how these strategies not only critique gender and age structures but also accommodate ageist ideology through a valuation of youth over old age.
Data
Our data derive from a larger project examining how RHS is a source of social support for older women and how it serves as a vehicle for cultural challenge and collective action. We use data from 52 semi-structured interviews with members of 13 chapters in the Tallahassee, Florida area between 2005 and 2006. Interviews lasted between 45 minutes and 2 hours and 30 minutes, averaging 1 hour and 20 minutes. They were conducted in a variety of settings, including the university, homes and coffee shops. Interviews addressed a range of topics, including involvement in the group, societal views of ageing women, and self-perceptions and views of ageing. Our sample averaged 66 years of age, ranging from 50 to 85. Over half (52%) were married or co-habiting, 13 per cent were widowed, 33 percent were separated or divorced, and 2 per cent were never married. The majority were parents (90%). Fifty-two per cent were retired and 44 per cent were currently employed; the remaining 4 per cent had either been home-makers or infrequently employed. The average participant was highly educated; all completed high school, with 35 per cent attending but not completing college, 29 per cent completing college and 23 per cent attaining a masters or doctoral degree. The majority were white (88%); only 6 per cent were African-American, 4 per cent were Hispanic and 2 per cent were of other or unidentified race-ethnic groups. All interviews were transcribed and coded for a range of emergent themes and constructs.
Our coding framework was developed through both a deductive process involving our research questions, interview questions and review of relevant literature and an inductive process involving initial coding of a subset (N = 30) of our interviews (Charmaz Reference Charmaz2006). In developing the coding framework, each interview in the sub-sample was read by three members of the research team, with codes noted independently. We then met to discuss the codes and the emergent categories or themes to which they may relate, prior to conducting more focused coding of the complete data-set (Charmaz Reference Charmaz2006). Providing an example of the interplay of deductive and inductive processes, our initial coding sheet included a category for data related to the group's focus on fun. Examination of quotes with this code revealed themes of feminine activities and youth – specifically childhood – that formed the basis for additional codes. We note that the interview guide did not contain questions about childhood or girlhood; rather, this theme emerged inductively from the interviews. The development of a coding framework involved ‘constant comparative methods’, including comparisons within and across individuals and searches for cases that did not conform to emergent categories (Glaser and Strauss Reference Glaser and Strauss1967). Each interview then was focus-coded using the framework we had developed.
We took a similar approach to our analysis of particular themes emerging from the data. We cast the net widely in our analysis of data for this paper; we examined quotations found in any of the following coding categories (several of which contain sub-categories): events/activities, rituals, nomenclature, feminine activities, fun-focused, escape/release from roles or norms, ‘second girlhood’, community service, comparisons with other groups, wearing red hat, feelings/reactions to Red Hat poem, guilt, views of elders, age identity, appearance, Red Hats' views of ageing, and reactions to Red Hats. In addition to the interviews, data are drawn from the official RHS website (www.redhatsociety.com, accessed August 2014) and a book written by the group's founder (Cooper Reference Cooper2004), describing the group and its origin. Our study should be viewed as descriptive of the experiences of our participants; we make no claims as to the statistical generalisability of our findings to all members of RHS or similar organisations. However, the findings can be theoretically generalised to other contexts in which social processes at the micro-level shape the macro-structures they are present within (Stolte, Fine and Cook Reference Stolte, Fine and Cook2001).
Results
Prior research examining women's responses to ageism describes how they alter themselves to accommodate society's obsession with youth, broadly conceived. None, to our knowledge, including those focusing on RHS, explore the pattern that we find in our data – that is, a performance of girlhood. This pattern is a collective response to gendered ageism by which Red Hat women engage in behaviours simulating aspects of childhood. The strategy draws on the second childhood metaphor, highlighting freedom from responsibility and reduced accountability for one's actions. We examine the adoption of children's roles, specifically girls' roles, as a collective response containing elements of both resistance and accommodation. Our analysis also explores the meanings women attach to these activities and the emotional tensions they generate.
Performing girlhood: adopting children's social roles
The organisation promotes its mission of ‘reshaping the way women are viewed in today's culture’ (RHS website) by encouraging members to pursue personal fulfilment by abandoning social responsibilities and focusing on themselves. This orientation overlaps with the cultural construction of childhood – and later life as second childhood. In fact, the only rule of this ‘disorganisation’ is to have fun. As the website states, ‘We are the ones enjoying life to the fullest, no matter where we are or what we are doing! We are the mothers, daughters and grandmothers, of society. Some may ask, “What do you do?” The answer is … “We do exactly what we wish to do”’. Drawing a more direct link to childhood, in her book describing the organisation she founded Cooper (Reference Cooper2004: 9) quotes an anonymous author who wrote, ‘It's never too late to have a happy childhood’. She also describes RHS as fulfilling multiple needs for its members, the first of which is ‘the need to play and enjoy the whimsical aspects of life’ (Cooper Reference Cooper2004: 11).
The organisation advocates a carefree attitude by limiting the requirements for chapter leadership. Within each chapter there is only one official position, the queen mother, who keeps the group organised and plans events. By focusing on fun and limiting structure, RHS creates an atmosphere within which members can strategically perform girlhood by relinquishing organisational responsibilities – and acting silly. As April explains,
I belong to a lot of groups and I don't mind responsibility. But Red Hat is just something different. One of the things about Red Hat is that you just do everything the opposite of perfect, you know, proper. We are disorganised, and that's the thing I like about Red Hats! In these other organisations you're expected to perform in a certain way, you tend to be all prim and proper, you know, that kind of thing. In Red Hats you don't have to worry about that … I can afford to act silly!
Reminiscent of Hochschild's (Reference Hochschild1973) work on an aged subculture, participants describe this atmosphere as liberating. As Dorothy noted, ‘Red Hat has given me licence to be freer. I mean I've always been a little outrageous, I've never been docile. But this just gives me freedom to be totally outrageous if I want to be’. By acting ‘outrageous’ in a group setting rather than individually, women are protected from having behaviours negatively labelled (e.g. ‘senile’). Some members even went as far as to say that when they left the organisational setting they had to ‘get back to reality’, implying that they are not afforded such freedoms in everyday life. As Freda mused,
I think that's what Red Hat is, a form of an escape from reality. That's one thing I hadn't thought of before – is it an escape from reality? I don't know, it's just that I could be what I want, and do what I want to do.
Many participants discussed how they believe the organisation's focus on fun has improved societal views of older women. As Ruthann explained, ‘Our group is a fun group, and I think that people see [older women] out having fun, and being together, and enjoying life, rather than sitting at home in despair because they don't have anything better to do’. Some participants noted how the RHS's hallmark poem shaped their own views on ageing. As Karen said,
I read it and thought that I couldn't wait until I got to that age. I thought it would give me an opportunity to really not have to conform so much to the expectations of society or your work environment or whatever it was. I could be real free-spirited. And I suppose I was kinda like that when I was younger. I think the Red Hat poem gives you approval to be free-spirited and individualistic and not have to be confined by norms and structure.
This description resonates with the ‘second childhood’ metaphor, illustrating the organisation's strategic use of it to achieve desired goals. RHS employs a strategy similar to that of the senior movement; as described by Wang (Reference Wang, Chambon, Irving and Epstein1999), the stereotype of older adults as dependent was employed to garner public support for the movement. Similarly, the Red Hats' construction of later life as second childhood allows members greater behavioural latitude. Illuminating this strategy, research by Cahill (Reference Cahill1987) reveals that children – and in some cases, older adults – are able to violate societal codes of conduct and are excused for such violations on the basis of their age. However, these permissions are based on ageist assumptions about children and the elderly, as children are viewed as too immature to know any better and older adults as too cognitively challenged to recognise their faults. As Arluke and Levin (Reference Arluke and Levin1982) argue, the infantilisation reflected in the second childhood stereotype of old age lowers older adults' status. To resist such images, children and older adults are able to perform purposeful violations of these stereotypes – referred to as acts of ‘playful terrorism’ (Fine Reference Fine1986). These actions can be viewed as a response to ageism by which children and older adults protest their devalued status while also experiencing feelings of joyful mischief. RHS members' strategic use of the performance of girlhood is a similar act of resistance. Red Hatters protest ageist stereotypes of the elderly by dramatising the label intended to subordinate them (i.e. ‘silly old lady’).
Red Hatters engage in these acts of interactional terrorism at a collective level by acting outrageous in public; they draw attention to themselves by dressing conspicuously and being boisterous – actions they describe as having fun. Estella explained how in some cases chapters can act too outrageously, ‘Some chapters have been there and gotten too rowdy and were not welcome back. But nobody's told us not to come back, we behave really well’. While Red Hat members are encouraged to have fun and abandon responsibility, the organisation urges women to keep their expressions of liberation within reason. As detailed on their website,
We throw most ‘rules’ to the wind, but we still remember our manners. When we gather in public, we believe in being courteous to each other and to those around us. After all, we are ladies and members of a group like no other.
The organisation's collective attempt to experience a second childhood can liberate women from ageist expectations by encouraging them to play like children. However, this strategy may also be interpreted as accommodating ageism by upholding the view that youthful ages and behaviours are more enjoyable than those experienced in later life. Similar to women who perform beauty work to appear more youthful, Red Hatters engaging in a performance of girlhood are implicitly depicting ‘older’ characteristics as undesirable. At the individual level, these resistant norm violations amuse members; however, they concurrently uphold ageist views of women by reinforcing negative labels. The second girlhood that Red Hatters enact also reinforces sexism. While group membership may provide escape from some gender norms (i.e. acting ‘prim and proper’), the organisation still upholds sexist ideals of how ‘ladies’, no matter how liberated, should act.
The abandonment of responsibility encouraged by the organisation generates emotional tensions for members, stemming from internalised expectations to prioritise others' over one's own interests. Some members view the organisation as a guilt-free release from women's responsibilities. As Thelma explained, ‘To have an organisation where you don't have to feel guilty about not doing your fair share of the work is very nice. I don't know that men have quite that same feeling of “I'm supposed to be doing something to make this work”’. Of the women who asserted that they did not feel guilty for participating in self-prioritisation, many were defensive of their feelings, often giving examples of past sacrifice. For example, Lorna said ‘I don't feel guilty. I've done so many things for my family that you would not believe, taking food out of my mouth to feed somebody else’. Another interviewee, Lorraine, echoed this sentiment by explaining that ‘I raised four boys. Their father died when they were younger, so I thought “Yeah, I've earned this”’.
However, some women felt apprehensive about belonging to a group that ‘does not do anything that has a socially redeeming value’. Some chapters responded by balancing fun with charity. As Judith explains,
Most of the chapters just go out and do funny, hilarious stuff. Ours does two things a month. One is something that's community-oriented, either volunteering or something like collecting clothes for the needy, and one of them is fun.
Balancing fun with volunteer work is a way for some Red Hatters to cope with the guilt generated by self-prioritisation. While this chapter behaviour is in conflict with the organisation's rule to just have fun, some members feel it offers some legitimisation for the chapter's fun activities. As Marjorie discussed,
If you give your time and help people, that's pretty powerful. And maybe I am a little selfish in wanting to have fun, but in the back of my mind I want to give our money to the needy, so it's not totally selfish, I guess. I want to make a difference whether it's beneficial to an organisation or just saying I did something that turned out to be good … I'm not selfish – I wouldn't say that – but doing something that's meaningful.
Marjorie struggles with the feeling that participating in the organisation could be considered ‘selfish’, a label that threatens cultural conceptions of womanhood centring on selflessness and sacrifice. Charity work is a means for her to play and give back to the community through the same organisation. This finding is consistent with research on women's perceptions of their volunteer work, which they often view as an extension of their wife and mother roles (Negrey Reference Negrey1993).
Performing girlhood: playing dress-up
One way that Red Hatters enact girlhood is by dressing up, an activity resonating with the second childhood metaphor. As Cooper (Reference Cooper2004: 11) describes, one of the needs that RHS fulfils for members is ‘the desire to dress up and find the “lost” little girl inside each of us’. This activity's centrality was foreshadowed by the poem inspiring the organisation, which had a particular attire in mind – the red hat and purple dress. The attire evolved in several ways, including specification of colours for members younger than 50 (i.e. pink hat and lavender dress), reversal of colours on one's birthday (i.e. purple hat and red dress) and embellishment with costume-like accessories like feather boas. As Cooper (Reference Cooper2004: 157) explains, the embellishment of Red Hat attire is an expression of one's inner child and true self:
Along with a newfound freedom to play, comes another opportunity: the chance to let other people see you for who you really are, the chance to let that playful child out of the closet that she has been living in for too long. We reveal our true selves in so many ways, and the aesthetic choices each one of us makes reveals her personality.
Many respondents said that dressing up was their favourite part of membership. For example, Louise said, ‘I like the costume part of it. You know, being uninhibited enough to dress up for a costume party. It's a lot of fun because there are no rules; it just gives me permission to just be myself’. Its appeal also derives from a reminiscence of girlhood dress-up. As Arlene explains,
We're wearing these outfits that we would not normally wear. I say they're gaudy, but they're really more fun than they are gaudy. It just kind of gives you an idea to express yourself in outlandish ways that you wouldn't. It's like playing dress-up when you were a little kid, you know, and that's the way you feel.
The playful dress-up aspect of the group also represents a game in which members compete to see who can wear the most creatively embellished outfit. Interviewees often described memorable attire they had seen. For example, Jeanne provides this description:
We're just so out there! One of our members makes these hats for herself, whatever holiday it is she'll decorate her hats all wildly. You can't help but notice her! She might be wearing an Easter basket on top of her head with Easter bunnies coming out of it or for Christmas, oh my goodness … she had Santa stuck on there somewhere!
Participants frequently alluded to the collective meaning of the red hat – fun and silliness – in describing not only the reactions the group receives in their full regalia but also the influence they believe it has on others' perceptions of older women. As Thelma explained,
I walk into a restaurant with 12 other women, all wearing elaborate, ridiculous red hats and purple dresses. I would wear a pair of heels with inches this high and they are purple lizard shoes (laughs). When you have a bunch of women dressed up like that, walking into a restaurant and obviously having a good time, I think that that is making a statement to the general public. The public is looking at those women and not thinking ‘What a bunch of silly old women!’ but ‘Look what fun these people are having and wouldn't I like to be one of them when I'm old’.
RHS use of attention-garnering dress provides older women a way of asserting their identity and individuality, illustrating that the performative use of dress is not limited to young women. As Twigg (Reference Twigg2007, Reference Twigg2013) argued, fashion's youthful bias combines with gerontology's focus on social implications of the problems of old age to limit research on links between clothing and age; however, fashion can be a source of personal enjoyment for older women, and dress can be a performance aimed at making themselves more visible. This visibility rests, in large part, on the bold RHS colours that contrast with those expected in older adults' attire. The use of red, with its connotation of sexuality, also reflects a resistant element stemming from the second childhood metaphor, as both children and older adults are assumed to be asexual (Hockey and James Reference Hockey and James1993, Reference Hockey, James, Featherstone and Wernick1995).
While dressing up contains elements of resistance, it also can be seen as reinforcing sexism and ageism. Red Hat apparel is inherently gendered – purple dresses, high heels, costume jewellery – with some aspects increasing visibility through women's objectification and sexualisation. Dress-up also draws into focus the male gaze, thus advocating for beauty work and consumerism. Further limits to the dress-up strategy stem from its illustration of later life as second childhood; the group achieves greater visibility of ageing women but at the cost of ensuring they are not taken seriously. This reality is reflected in some reactions to the group – from anonymous others, as well as from family. Patsy relayed that her daughter thought they were ‘silly’ and her son-in-law called them the ‘empty hat club’. Describing her husband's view of the group, Lena explained, ‘My husband always says, “Just let me know where you're going to be so I won't be there” because he thinks I am only slightly nuts'. Laverne described a friend's closeting of Red Hat activities from her husband, saying that ‘she just puts her red hat in the car and she wears a purple dress and he doesn't know she's going to a Red Hat thing because he thinks it's silly’.
Performing girlhood: playing games
In addition to their play at dressing up, Red Hatters often play with children's toys and hold events reminiscent of childhood – behaviours aligning with the second childhood metaphor. As Patricia described, ‘It's our turn to play and return to childhood and remember and learn how to play’. A typical organisational event providing opportunities for playing dress-up is the ‘pyjama breakfast’ that resembles children's sleepover parties. Many interviewees described the carefree attitude their outfits symbolise. As Dorothy said,
I have a Snoopy nightshirt, purple, and big fuzzy slippers, and I made a big cap with Snoopy on his doghouse and they all have red hats on. So that's my pyjama breakfast outfit. But some people might come with curlers in their hair and some in just lounge outfits, it just depends. But it's crazy, and it's fun! So that's the kind of things we do for fun.
Other events reminiscent of childhood involve play with children's toys. As Shirley describes,
We have annual parties and the person that plans them has brought different things to play with like hula hoops. Can you imagine, a bunch of ladies doing hula hoops?! Then there were some kazoos that we were blowing and singing a song with. Oh, and we had those paddle balls. So we play with all of this stuff.
Some chapters play games and plan events like mall photo-shoots with Santa Claus, while others simply share lunch and a movie. Of those chapters that do play childhood games, members often remarked how these events generated youthful identities. For example, Blanche said, ‘Of all the things we've done, I think the Easter egg hunt was the most fun. It makes you be a child again’. Describing her chapter's involvement in a local parade, Patricia said, ‘It's kind of hard to feel old as you're prancing down the street’. These sentiments were echoed by other members who described the performance of girlhood behaviours as reminding them of when they were children. For example, women described themselves as a ‘big old kid’, ‘75 going on ten’ and ‘getting younger all the time’.
Rather than reflecting nostalgia, other descriptions revealed a sense of liberation of a ‘true self’ hidden or constrained by social expectations. As Ruthann said, ‘Younger people don't think of their grandmothers out there doing the hula hoop. I guess maybe when there's no other people around they might act crazier than if they knew other people were going to be seeing what they really like to do’. This description connects with two theoretical perspectives in gerontology – one on the mask of ageing and the other on shifts towards authenticity with age. The mask of ageing perspective argues that physiology and behavioural norms shaping the experience of ageing create a disconnect between the external and internal self: the external appears older than inner feelings, motives and beliefs (Featherstone and Hepworth Reference Featherstone, Hepworth, Featherstone, Hepworth and Turner1991). The second perspective – found in philosophical, psychological and sociological discussions of ageing – involves arguments about either the suspension in later life of norms, which expands behavioural latitude (Arnold Reference Arnold2005; George Reference George1998), or developmental issues (Jung Reference Jung and Hull1960) or existential dilemmas of later life that lead to ‘becoming oneself in ageing’ (Rentsch Reference Rentsch1997).
Research on RHS has emphasised the role of play in the organisation and the individual benefits older women experience as a result of play (Yarnal Reference Yarnal2006; Yarnal, Chick and Kerstetter Reference Yarnal, Chick and Kerstetter2008; Yarnal et al. Reference Yarnal, Kerstetter, Chick, Hutchinson and Kuschner2009). While noting that play can affirm or oppose societal norms, these studies do not examine how this organisation's strategic use of play – and specifically the gender- and age-specific aspects of their forms of play – reflects the metaphor of later life as second childhood that can be seen as both resisting and accommodating gendered ageism. The toys used by the group connote childhood, such as the kazoo, which has been declared its official instrument (Yarnal et al. Reference Yarnal, Kerstetter, Chick, Hutchinson and Kuschner2009). The organisation's selection of childhood toys, rather than age-neutral or adult leisure activity objects (e.g. sports equipment, television, magazines), demonstrates the group's resistance of society's age-structured restrictions on recreation. However, the selection also promotes an infantilisation of older adults.
While the organisation's use of childhood toys is a commentary on age structures, the participation in girlhood activities (e.g. tea parties, pyjama breakfasts) draws attention to how gendered play might accommodate or resist gendered ageism. These activities have been interpreted as a form of resistance in prior research on RHS (Stalp, Radina and Lynch Reference Stalp, Radina and Lynch2008); however, the same critiques of gendered play in childhood hold true for play in later life (Thorne Reference Thorne1993). Red Hatters engage in gendered play that creates and maintains gender boundaries and subcultures much like children on playgrounds (Thorne and Luria Reference Thorne and Luria1986). A further critique centres on the sedentary nature of the feminine activities in which they engage, which has consequences for health in later life (Warburton, Nicol, and Bredin Reference Warburton, Nicol and Bredin2006).
Conclusion
Gender and age inequality intersect to produce a form of gendered ageism that disadvantages older women in our culture; however, limited attention has been given to how women's organisations reproduce or challenge this inequality. We address this issue by examining RHS, a leisure organisation for middle-aged and older women that aims to create a supportive network and define women's ageing more positively. Although over a dozen studies examine RHS, they tend to give limited attention to the age structures navigated by and reflected in the organisation. Drawing on feminist conceptions of age as performance (Laz Reference Laz1998, Reference Laz2003), our analysis reveals how the organisation's practices of performing age – specifically, a performance of girlhood – reflects a dominant cultural metaphor of later life as second childhood. We find that Red Hat members performed girlhood by adopting youthful social roles, playing dress-up, and engaging in activities or playing with toys associated with childhood.
Our analysis of these practices reveals complexity in the responses of ageing women's organisations to gendered ageism: rather than simply resisting or accommodating inequality, these organisational practices can contain elements of both responses. The performance of girlhood accommodates ageism by reinforcing the valorisation of youth and devaluation of old age. It enacts not only the view of later life as second childhood but also stereotypes of old women as silly at best and senile at worst. The behaviours associated with this performance of youth, such as tea parties and ‘ladylike’ comportment, also reinforce dominant gender ideologies, as do other leisure activities (Shaw Reference Shaw2001). While adopting youthful attitudes and behaviours may appear to accommodate ageism, the extrication of ‘childhood’ from ‘youth’ reveals parallels between stereotypes associated with children and the elderly that raise other possibilities. Red Hatters' exploitation of these stereotypes liberates them from some gendered responsibilities. Borrowing from the second childhood metaphor, the group gives women licence to play, implying a valuation of self-enjoyment that challenges expectations of women, particularly older women, to invest time and energy in others' wellbeing. However, this strategy and its goals are limited: self-prioritisation manifests as a right to consume leisure as an avenue to individual fulfilment through the achievement of an authentic (and youthful) self – rather than a focus on disrupting systems of age and gender inequality that marginalise older women. These tensions are similar to those operating in other groups targeting marginalised social groups. For example, although the fat acceptance movement – representing, like RHS, a social group with deviant bodies – aims to challenge the thin ideal, it denies neither the ideal's ‘power and attraction’ nor the ‘overdetermination of identity by the body’ (Donaghue and Clemitshaw Reference Donaghue and Clemitshaw2012: 422–3). Further, its challenge to the ideal is narrow, resting on the notion that weight loss is impossible for some individuals (Donaghue and Clemitshaw Reference Donaghue and Clemitshaw2012; Gimlin Reference Gimlin2002).
Tension between resistance and accommodation also is reflected in women's emotional experiences and accounts for their involvement. Accounts revealed feelings of entitlement to self-prioritisation, stemming from perceptions of having met the requirements of ‘good women’ either in younger years or in other current roles. But accounts also revealed feelings of guilt generated by their rejection (albeit limited) of social responsibility. While accounts of entitlement bolster resistance to gendered ageism, claims are undercut by guilt – an emotional representation of pressures to accommodate inequality. Building on our findings, further research on RHS should examine the group's emotion management strategies, including tensions between them and variations in their use across structural and situational contexts.
While illuminating women's navigation of age and gender inequality, our conclusions are limited by several study features. Our sample consists primarily of white, well-educated women. This characteristic is not surprising, given homogeneity within social organisations and networks (McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook Reference McPherson, Smith-Lovin and Cook2001; Rotolo and Wilson Reference Rotolo and Wilson2007); however, it underscores the importance of considering RHS chapters, as well as other social organisations, involving higher proportions of race-ethnic and sexual minorities and those of lower social classes. We also examined a group for women rather than men. Reflecting the double standard of ageing, a group of such large and geographically wide membership as RHS does not exist for ageing men. However, studies could examine how age and gender inequality jointly shape constructions of ageing in men's organisations, such as Lions or Freemasons. Because older men tend to eschew elders' organisations (Davidson, Daly and Arber Reference Davidson, Daly and Arber2003), non-age-based groups may provide settings for constructing identities that counter ageing's threats to dominant masculinity, emphasising independence, competence and strength. Our study suggests that further research, focusing on men's or other women's groups, should examine the potential influence of the metaphor of second childhood – or other images of later life or life more generally (e.g. as a cycle, race or hill) – on individuals' conceptions and experiences of ageing.
