Queering ‘Successful Ageing’, Dementia and Alzheimer’s Research

Abstract

Contributing to both ageing research and queer-feminist scholarship, this article introduces feminist philosopher Margrit Shildrick's queer notion of the monstrous to the subject of ageing and the issue of dealing with frailty within ageing research. The monstrous, as a norm-critical notion, takes as its point of departure that we are always already monstrous, meaning that the western ideal of well-ordered, independent, unleaky, rational embodied subjects is impossible to achieve. From this starting point the normalizing and optimizing strategies of ageing researchhere exemplified through the concept of successful ageing and the treatment of Alzheimer's disease -can be problematized. The notion of the monstrous instead suggests a view on ageing and 'monstrous' embodiment which provides room for other, different ways of being recognized as an embodied subject, and for dealing with difference, vulnerability and frailty.

Queering Aging Futures

“…If mainstream visions of successful aging have difficulty in accommodating queer futures, they are also difficult to reconcile with "the frailty of aging human bodies and the inevitable failure of ideals of the embodied subject" [45] (p. 78). Perhaps what makes the iconic representations of successful aging so effective-and affective-is the constant awareness of the possibility of less-certain futures.…”

“…Continuously presented as an 'epidemic' threatening to overtake aging futures, dementia has surfaced as a number one priority in national and global health policies [42,43]. The proposed threat of dementia lies not only in the burden it puts on aging societies, but also in the manner in which the person with dementia is positioned as a threatening, monstrous, zombie-like existence between life and death [44][45][46]. Parallel to the monstrosity of the older gay man's disjoint with futurity, the person with dementia emerges as monstrous partly because of her lack of-or disruption of-futures.…”

“…monstrous springs not only from dehumanizing discourses which associate dementia, embodiment, and subjectivity with the living dead, but also with unknown/unwanted futures [45].…”

Resonating moments: Exploring socio-material connectivity through artistic encounters with people living with dementia

“…Feminist scholarship enables us to view what makes life worth living in different ways and offers promising approaches to encountering various dilemmas in respect of what it means to be human. Morten Hillhaard Bülow's and Marie-Louise Holm's work on queering 'successful ageing' (Bülow & Holm, 2016), Joanne Latimer's reading of Gladys Wilson (Latimer, 2018) and Dragana Lukić analysis of multiple ontologies of Alzheimer's disease (Lukić, 2019) New material feminist theories allow us to think 'agency increasingly as not merely a human affair' (Tiainen, 2018, p. 108). As is everything else, relations are in a constant state of becoming (Nussbaum, 2013).…”

Die dunkle Seite der Vorstellungskraft: Das Abjekt als Verworfenes im Imaginären

“…In der das vierte Alter begleitenden Metaphorik werden die (zukünftigen) Körper der Betroffenen sogar von diesen selbst durch den Vergleich mit Müll ("piece of dirt") oder ausrangierten Maschinen ("wreck") in die Sphäre der Materie, aber auch als Schlachtvieh ("slice of meat") und vertrocknende Pflanzen ("shriveled") in die Sphäre des Kreatürlichen verwiesen (van Wijngaarden et al 2017). Die Überschreitung der Grenze zum Nicht-Menschlichen und Monströsen (Bülow und Holm 2016mit Verweis auf Shildrick 2001 im vierten Alter wird auch im Vergleich von Demenzkranken mit Zombies ("animated corpse") deutlich (Behuniak 2011).…”