This text focuses on menarche, the first menstrual period, as a central aspect of body politics in US society. Using narratives of 104 diverse women, the authors address the central question of how menarche as a bodily event takes on a cultural significance in a society that devalues women and explores how women have both provided support for and resisted gendered social relations of power through their negotiation of this crucial life transition. Examining issues of contamination and concealment, and the sexualization that occurs at menarche, the authors emphasize how the politics of gender are negotiated on and through women's bodies.

This text focuses on menarche, the first menstrual period, as a central aspect of body politics in US society. Using narratives of 104 diverse women, the authors address the central question of how menarche as a bodily event takes on a cultural significance in a society that devalues women and explores how women have both provided support for and resisted gendered social relations of power through their negotiation of this crucial life transition. Examining issues of contamination and concealment, and the sexualization that occurs at menarche, the authors emphasize how the politics of gender are negotiated on and through women's bodies.

Human aging is a complex, multi-faceted experience that unfolds over an entire lifetime. While human aging is universal, it is also wildly variable, shaped by individual, social, cultural, political, geographic and historical contexts. Gerontology: The basics explores the field of research, education and practice which takes on the complex and multi-faceted questions, issues and problems of adult aging and old age. Intended for anyone interested in understanding the origins of gerontology and its unique purview, we invite the reader to join us in a critical examination of what we think we know about becoming and being old and, perhaps, be inspired to engage more deeply in their own travels through the life-course.

Human aging is a complex, multi-faceted experience that unfolds over an entire lifetime. While human aging is universal, it is also wildly variable, shaped by individual, social, cultural, political, geographic and historical contexts. Gerontology: The basics explores the field of research, education and practice which takes on the complex and multi-faceted questions, issues and problems of adult aging and old age.

Intended for anyone interested in understanding the origins of gerontology and its unique purview, we invite the reader to join us in a critical examination of what we think we know about becoming and being old and, perhaps, be inspired to engage more deeply in their own travels through the life-course.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction to the Field of Gerontology

2. The Aging Body

3. The Aging Mind

4. Aging in Society

5. The Political Economy of Aging

6. The Meaning of Old Age

7. Epilogue

Glossary