Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15 – 31

www.elsevier.com/locate/jaging

The old lady from Ipanema: Changing notions of old age in Brazil
Annette Leibing*
Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, 3647 Peel St, Montreal, Qc, Canada H3A 1X1
Instituto de Psiquiatria, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Institute of Social Gerontology of Quebec, Montreal, Qc, Canada

Received 21 October 2003; received in revised form 18 February 2004; accepted 19 March 2004

Abstract

This article identifies the main categories, notions, and values associated with aging in articles published in
urban Brazilian print media 1967–2002, and uses these categories to trace several historical changes regarding
what constitutes bsuccessfulQ aging in Brazil. The historical changes include the transition of aging from a divine to
more worldly concern; from a male to predominantly female preoccupation; from dold ageT to dthird age.T These
transitions are intertwined with new moral hierarchies, and are linked to the medicalization of old age in the late
twentieth century.
D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Aging categories; Media; Urban Brazil; Anthropology; Third age

1. Introduction
The Girl from Ipanema. Look, what a beautiful sight! There she is, full of grace, That girl who’s
coming towards us, Passing us with a sweet swing of her hips, Towards the sea. . . (bThe girl from
IpanemaQ, composed by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, 1963)
Fernanda Montenegro, considered by many to be Brazil’s most talented actress, was nominated in
1999 for an Academy Award for her role in the film bCentral Station.Q Her nomination made her a
national heroine, not only because she was the first Brazilian to receive such recognition—augmenting

* Department of Social Studies of Medicine, McGill University, 3647 Peel St, Montreal, Qc, Canada H3A 1X1. Tel.: +1 514
398 6033; fax: +1 514 398 1498.
E-mail address: aleibing@videotron.ca.

0890-4065/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jaging.2004.03.010
16 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

Brazil’s self-esteem, as former president Cardoso remarked at that time—but also because a 70-year old
woman was challenging young, seductive Hollywood beauties. bI am the old lady from Ipanema,Q
commented Fernanda Montenegro, referring to the famous song by Tom Jobim.
Fernanda Montenegro did not win the Oscar, but the story continued receiving coverage in the
Brazilian media, revealing many of the topics to be discussed below. Recently, for example, the cover of
the weekly magazine Veja showed a photograph of the mature and self-confident actress with the title
bSimply FernandaQ (Veja Rio [weekly magazine], 2001). bSimplyQ referred to Fernanda’s personality
which is less bshow businessQ in comparison to her Hollywood colleagues, but also to a certain bde-
corporealityQ: her prominent wrinkles set her apart from many Brazilians of the higher classes who
carefully hide all visible signs of decay. What Fernanda and these Brazilians have in common is that
certain persons are considered neither old nor young, because, up to a certain point, their prestige, fame,
and money allow them to transcend a more traditional life course by ignoring decay and old age.
Hierarchies of power1 and the plasticity of the body are important issues when discussing aging in
Brazil. It is far more common to carefully hide all signs of the aging body in Brazil than in many
countries. Brazil is well known for its large number of plastic surgeries,2 even if some popular sayings—
such as bwhen she smiles, her knee liftsQ—ridicule the practice, and reveal the decay behind many
careful attempts of hiding one’s age.3 The management of the perfect body is part of a system that creates
moral hierarchies: the boundaries between what is considered right and wrong, successful or
unsuccessful are often made up along dynamic, sometimes hidden, and ideological lines. Gerontology,
concerned with theorizing aging, is but one institution that contributes to the formation of categories
that influence everyday life. Gerontology has been described by some critical scholars (e.g., Cohen,
1994; Katz, 1996) as linked to what Althusser (quoted in Haraway, 1991, p. 196) called
bsimplification(s) in the last instanceQ: certainties such as unquestioned categories, clichés, and
stereotypes.
In this article, I discuss the most salient categories of aging and how they have changed over the last
35 years through an analysis of the coverage of this topic in the local print media in urban Brazil. These
changes, which also indicate a change in individualities (Novas & Rose, 2000), open up new
possibilities for living one’s life as one becomes older, but, at the same time, make other possibilities less
desirable or even immoral. To shed light on the process of becoming of certain categories, while others
drift into the shadow, is the intention of this article.

2. Some background observations on topic and methodology

Studying aging in Brazil is important for several reasons. First, it is conceivable that the obsession of
many Brazilians with a desirable body makes aging more problematic than for persons living in a less
1
Power is here understood in the Foucaultian sense as bthe relational environment in which actions take place, and so is the sum of
influences on actions. . .Q (Prado, 1995: 162).
2
In 1994, 100,000 plastic surgeries took place in Brazil, while in the year 2000, the number rose to 360,000 (8% and 28% of these,
respectively, were men; Sociedade Brasileira de Cirurgia Plástica, in: Rogar, 2002). A recent worldwide study by Avon Cosmetics revealed that
not only that Brazilian women are the most preoccupied women in the world with their appearance, but also that plastic surgery is regarded as
bnaturalQ in Brazil even more than in the U.S., the country with the highest number of this kind of surgery (Buchalla, 2003).
3
The 22-year-old bMiss Brazil 2001Q set off a heated debate within the local press because of her 19 surgical interventions before the
elections. The boundaries of the authenticity of beauty were discussed, with questions asked about how much bunnaturalnessQ could be allowed
while still attributing beauty to the person and not to technological interventions (Mansur, 2001).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 17

body-oriented society. Second, especially in the urban centers in Brazil, traditional family structures
have changed dramatically and a trend in the nuclear family can be observed: many elderly persons
today are living alone.4 A missing social net and lacking social institutions helping elderly people are
deepening the perception of aging persons-in-need as a burden (Cotrim-Levcovitz, 1999; Debert,
2002a,b). This situation is embedded in a qualitative change that constitutes a new aging, which will be
described below.
At the same time, Brazil, often perceived and described as a byoung countryQ, is aging in an
accelerated way. (Camarano, 2002; Veras, 1994). As opposed to most countries in Europe or North
America, where this process happened slowly, the percentage of elderly persons in Brazil has doubled in
the last 50 years. It is estimated that, in 2020, Brazil will rank sixth worldwide regarding the percentage
of its elderly in terms of the total population.5 This bdemographic transitionQ is directly linked to the
bdiscoveryQ of elderly persons not only as a population but also as both consumers and voters.6
Consequently, more and more space in the media has been dedicated and addressed to the senior
population.
Acknowledging that working with the main categories reflects only part of the wider phenomenon of
local aging,7 the printed press (tightly linked to the powerful TV world) nevertheless communicates
important metaphors which are bstrategies. . . designed to organize and command the army of one’s
thoughts and images and so to organize themQ (Burke, 1973 quoted in Nelkin, 1995; see also Lakoff &
Johnson, 1980).8 The categories used in the media reflect bsituated knowledgesQ and form parts of
classificatory systems, assembling actions and patterns which signal not only what is considered good
and bad, but also what is visible or invisible (Bowker & Star, 2002). That would mean that these
categories are part of a regime of truth and their critical analysis btries to establish the distributions and
distinctions that would make judgement possibleQ9 (Rose, 1998b: 166; see also Davidson, 1996; Katz,
1996; Rose, 1998a).
The articles examined in this study cover a period from the end of the 1960s to the present. The
collection of an important archive belonging to one of the biggest news editors in Brazil (Editora Abril)
provided the main source of material. The articles—which were taken from the folders bagingQ and
bgeriatricsQ—had been collected from the main newspapers and magazines in the urban centers, mainly
Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The collection was not complete, however, as I quickly found out, but,

4
See Camarano (2002) for a discussion of the rising number of elderly persons who live alone and, at the same time, the growing economic
power of the elderly in Brazil.
5
For an overview of the Brazilian bdemographic transition,Q see, for example, Camarano (2002) and Berquó (1996). The 2000 census
(IBGE, 2000) revealed that in that year 169,872,856 Brazilians were counted, 14,348,987 persons were over 60 years old (2,479,012 of these
living in a rural environment). Rio de Janeiro is the city with the highest number of persons over 60 years (almost 10%).
6
Sérgio Cabral Filho, a politician from Rio de Janeiro, is a good example of this trend. He was twice one of the deputies with the highest
number of votes, relying on a political program directed towards elderly persons.
7
This article is a first overview of the main aging categories in urban Brazilian media articles and how these categories change over time. A
second, complementary article would describe more extensively two questions: (1) how knowledge travels/transforms among diverse domains
of knowledge production and categories are formed and (2) how people with different backgrounds incorporate or contest current aging
categories in everyday life.
8
A limitation to all media studies is the fact that an article is written through the journalist’s blensQ. Or, as Blaikie and Hepworth (1997)
write, images are b. . .never dinnocentT but, in an archaeological sense, comprise several layers of interpretation and reinterpretation. . .Q(p. 103).
In this article, I am not preoccupied with the judgment of truth (e.g., if the age of the mentioned elderly persons is really her/his age), but with
truth claims in a Foucaultian sense (see Prado, 1995: 119–150 for a discussion).
9
Rose (1998a) argues in favor of a critical bpresent centered‘ historyQ which questions the bcertainties of the presentQ.
18 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

nevertheless, it is able to give an idea of the rising number of articles over the years (see below) and the
changing ideologies within the recent history of aging categories in Brazil.
Social scientists have contested the notion that people are the passive victims of media ideologies.
Becker (2002), for example, writes against the bimpact paradigmQ that, having its roots in the Frankfurt
school, b. . .treats the public as an inert mass which . . . reacts to what is presented to it by powerful
(usually commercial) organizations and the representatives of dominant social strataQ (p. 340). The need
for a contextualization of cultural producers (political, economic and cultural factors) was described by
Mahon (2000) as barenas in which social actors struggle over social meanings and as visible evidence of
social processes and social relations...Q In this sense, I chose to examine Brazilian printed media in order
to explore the changing character of these arenas as related to aging. This diachronic approach does not
examine any particular year in-depth, but is more suited to capture trends as they appear and disappear
over time. Furthermore, because Brazil is a country in which the media plays an important role in
shaping everyday life, this study can draw on other important complementary studies of Brazilian media,
including analyses of telenovelas (soap operas; Gomes, 1998; Mattelart & Mattelart, 1990) and relations
between violence and the media (e.g., Herschmann, 2000; Minayo et al., 1999; Rondelli, 1998; Sodré,
1992; Leibing, 2001b).
As will be seen, many elements of the Brazilian landscape of aging do not differ so much from
contexts such as that of the United States. Aging ideologies are much more widespread than one might
think. Featherstone and Wernick (1995), in the introduction to Images of Aging, comment on the articles
by Stephen Katz and Tamara Hareven that both show the shift from a preoccupation with longevity to a
b. . .discussion of the medical symptoms of senescenceQ (p. 6/7). This shift is also recognizable within the
Brazilian urban context.
Another similarity is that aging became part of a lifestyle, just like Katz (1999) and others have
described it for North American populations. A major category, which stands for this kind of lifestyle, is
third age (terceira idade in Brazil). The concept stems from a French movement in the 1970s, but in the
present contains mainly North American values (Laslett, 1991).10 In a simplified way, one could
describe it as a movement which is based on the empowerment of elderly persons by fighting against
aging stereotypes and for better living conditions. While this is, in general, positive, third age—and not
necessarily old age—creates new stereotypes which are often linked to constant activity (Katz, 1999),
consumerism (Featherstone & Hepworth, 1982), independence, will power, and bhaving funQ in a world
which is very much directed towards living in the present without decay (Rose, 1998a, Leibing, 2001a,
2002b). It became increasingly associated with a period of life between adult life and old age.
These new values associated with third age have been promoted against images of sad, abandoned
elderly persons in need of care. I want to call these latter images bfourth age.Q In the gerontological
literature, the term bfourth ageQ is sometimes used to name the boldest old.Q I use bfourth ageQ not in this
sense but as a counter-category to bthird age.Q In this sense, third and fourth ages are interdependent and

10
Peter Laslett was probably the first who wrote a longer text on third age, its emergence and one of its major products, the universities of
third age. In his book A Fresh Map of Life (1991), he passionately analyses third age as when bthe apogee of personal life is achievedQ. While
beautifully outlining the empowerment that third age provides for many elderly people, Laslett, who was one of the founders of the University
of Third Age in the UK in 1981, is unable to distance himself from its ideology in order to see its shortcomings. The historian Aline Charles
showed that during the 1950s, a model of bgreen agingQ emerged in Canada and that this new model was a counterpoint to a bblack agingQ which
was until then dominant. Like third and fourth age, this meant a similar way of categorizing old age by dividing it in good and bad old age, with
strong moral connotations (Charles, personal communication).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 19

have malleable boundaries which will be discussed below. Although fourth age, as it is defined here,
does not exist as a category in use, its indirect use is as a foil for the explicit category (Leite, 2002).11

3. From old age to third age

3.1. The beginning: longevity

Longevity is a recurring topic, perhaps the most important one, encompassing the majority of topics
related to aging. A surprising consistency of truths spanning the centuries—and nations—can be found.
For example, Bailey (1857), in the foreword to Records of Longevity, wrote that. . .
temperance, industry, and exercise are the three great elements of longevity. A few slothful men
have attained to extreme old age. . .; but for the most part, and in an incomparably greater
proportion, long livers have been distinguished for their sober and industrious habits (pp. 4/5).12
In the Brazilian media examined here, the emergence of longevity as a topic is associated with the
general moral notion of a good, dsoberT life. Between 1968 and 1973, one or two very short articles per
year, some articles consisting of only four or five lines, are about persons who reach extreme old age. All
of these persons live in developing countries (e.g., Ecuador) where a simple life or a general asceticism
(like in Japan) is part of the public imagery. For example, one article is about elderly persons living in
Vilcabamba13, a valley in Ecuador in which people seem to live longer than elsewhere. The article
describes the inhabitants as getting up at 4 A.M. and having to walk long distances in the mountains, and
as hard-working people who do not eat any manufactured food. bThese are poor people and the
impossibility of living in a more sophisticated way preserves the population from the evils of
civilization,Q comments the journalist (MA, 1971).14 In the same article, a man from Pakistan is also
mentioned giving his recipe for a long life: always sleeping outside. In these articles, the destructive
forces of civilization and industrialization are opposed to the bnaturalQ simplicity of a good lifestyle.
In the 1970s, articles on aging began to describe elderly Brazilians, sometimes using the same
opposition of lifestyles. For instance, Brazilian gerontologist Mário Fillizzola turned the expert gaze to
Brazilian elderly persons, questioning why people could not live to be 200 years old. His prescriptions
for longevity, based on studies from abroad, prescribed eating less (e.g., no dinner), no fried food, and

11
A good example is activity as part of a bgoodQ lifestyle, while being sedentary is considered almost immoral in reference to one’s health
and social skills. In Brazil, the image of an elderly man in his pyjamas and slippers, staying at home is often used against the one of virile men
who meet at public places and, as in the group observed by Mauro Brigueiro, play cards or comment on the women passing by (Brigueiro,
2001).
12
The greater female survival rate as compared to the male one was also explained by the author by the bsober, temperate habits [of
women], generally so much superior to those of men. . .Q (p. 5) And in Successful Aging (Rowe & Kahn, 1998), 140 years after Thomas Baileys’
findings, the authors conclude that b[p]erhaps the greatest anti-aging bpotionQ is good old-fashioned clean living.Q With this, the authors mean no
smoking, exercise, little fat intake, etc.
13
Mazess and Forman (1979) write about Vilcabamba where they found a systematic age exaggeration within the population. They state
that there is only a small advantage of old people in the village as compared to the rest of Ecuador, but do not exclude the possibility that, before
1970, when the village was more isolated, a much higher number was prevalent. They also call attention to the relatively large group of elderly
inhabitants bwho remain physically active and who seem to maintain cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health.Q
14
The articles used from the archives in São Paulo will be abbreviated: MA=Manchete, DES=Desfile, JB=Jornal do Brasil, ESP=Estado de
São Paulo, FSP=Folha de São Paulo, GL=O Globo, JT=Jornal da Tarde (plus the year of its appearance).
20 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

continuous activity the entire day (bit does not matter whatQ, byou can get sick from restingQ) (MA,
1970). His arguments were all based on foreign authorities, transmitting the following values, which
became increasingly incorporated into public discourse on aging during the following years: willpower,
responsibility for one’s own health (and aging), the marginalization of the aging population, and activity.
In 1974, the topic of eating less is repeated by quoting Russian and American scientists who recommend
adopting a diet of shortage in order to prevent rapid aging.
At the same time, in the early- to mid-1970s, articles on extremely old people get longer
(sometimes covering several pages) and the Brazilian poor become the subjects of these articles. For
example, a 157-year-old man, living in a poor neighborhood close to Rio de Janeiro, is described as
having died of an unknown disease, indicating nothing other than old age as the cause of death (JB,
1973). The same year a 151-year-old woman from Bahia died from the flu; apart from that, she was
completely healthy. The bsecond class coffinQ, the bhumble hutQ in which she had lived and the
suffering caused by her paralyzed son with his two mentally retarded children evoke the image of a
long (and hard) life as divine justice (JB, 1973). This image is underlined in other articles which
even favor the simple life over the right habits: centenarians are described as being old b. . .although
she smokes 20 cigarettes a day, drinks wine at every meal and in the morning a glass of vodkaQ (JB,
1975; on a Russian woman; emphasis added). In the same article, a village in Southern Brazil is
identified as a place where one bdies only of a bullet or old age.Q Another 123-year-old man had
always worked hard throughout his life, without a special diet, and smoking his pipe until that day.
He is a religious man, praying at that moment that 100-year-old Claudinha would become his new
wife because his last one had died 40 years previously.

Brazil Foreign Total

1968–1971 – 5 5
1972–1975 5 1 6
1976–1979 2 1 3
1980–1983 14 6 20
1984–1987 8 8 16
1988–1991 29 14 43
1992–1995 26 14 40
1996–1998 75 14 89
The first 30 years covered by the archives of the Editora Abril: Number of articles with either predominantly national or foreign
focus on aging (please note that the archives are not complete and represent just a trend for the interest in aging).

It is above all poverty and a life close to nature which is linked to longevity and that is opposed
to civilization/industrialization as the cause of bad health. The articles reflect a notion of health
going beyond the physical body: they are referring to the body in its environment. Body and
environment are not perceived as neutral objects, but as interacting and inherently moral entities.
The persons described in these first texts—and the topic continues through into present-day
articles—all have docile bodies, they seem to accept their poverty. Within this moral context of
traditional Christian values such as hard work or the praise of asceticism, death and, in a way,
sickness could result from the refusal to accept one’s destiny. This naturalizes Brazil’s hierarchical
access to health care and perhaps, as some have argued, the injustice inherent in many capitalist
systems (Taussig, 1977).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 21

3.2. Demographic changes, ageism and the beginning of third age

When life starts at 60. (JB, 1990 on the new active lifestyle of elderly people)
After a certain age, you get the face you deserve. (Joan Collins in 1994; quoted in Blaikie, 1999)
At the end of the 1970s, aging began to be discussed in Brazil in different terms. (Good) aging
became not so much a matter of a moral, Christian life as it became a question of the right attitudes that
relativize old age by putting culture before biology. Not only do the articles get longer and talk more and
more about Brazilian reality (e.g., about sexuality, a popular topic: bthere is still fire under the strawQ [JB,
1978]) but also elderly persons become more visible in both media and generally in society. This is in
part because of the growing awareness of demographic changes. It is also because aging ceased to be
exclusively situated within the family domain: elderly persons started to become a bnational problemQ.15
What one sees now is a population in need of social interventions: bThe elderly, or better: the abandoned,
the forgotten ones, the solitary ones. . .Q (ESP, 1980) or: babandonment leaves 200,000 elderly living
from almsQ (ESP, 1982).
In 1982, the First National Meeting of the Elderly took place in São Paulo, organized by the Brazilian
Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SBGG). Two years earlier, this organization had opened its doors
to individuals of associated disciplines who were not MDs, loosely united together under the label
bgerontologistsQ. Multidisciplinarity was becoming fashionable. Psychologists, social workers and other
helping professions joined forces to fight for older persons bin need, rejected by their family, and without
a relevant social function. Despised, bothering, marginalized into poverty, treated as if a sick person. . .Q
(ESP, 1982) A whole new market emerged which had as its raison d’être elderly persons, who—against
Freud’s position—even became eligible for psychoanalytic interventions.
But other stories were also told. Alongside depressing images of a helpless elderly population, new
initiatives appeared in the media contesting (and later putting aside) the negative aspects of aging. One
early text describes a club promoting a weekly ballroom dance for elderly persons. The contestation of
an exclusively negative aging is brought to light when the dancers’ vigor is described, or in other stories
such as the one about a 93-year-old man who had died shortly before—not because of a disease, but
because he fell from a roof (FSP, 1980). Another article describes elderly men playing games (cards,
domino) in public spaces in Rio de Janeiro, especially in Copacabana,16 bto combat their boredomQ (JB,
1980). Only a short time afterwards this kind of leisure activity came to be described in different terms,
as bempowermentQ, bactivityQ, or bcognitive exerciseQ and no longer as a meaningless pastime.
In addition, these kinds of stories were becoming more and more feminine. Earlier, old ladies in Rio
de Janeiro were almost invisible, while men used public places for their meetings. Soon vans driving
middle class elderly ladies to theatres or shows became everyday images, as well as the groups of older
women doing gymnastics or tai chi chuan early in the morning on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.
It was 2 years later that the expression bthird ageQ (terceira idade) began to appear more and more in
the media. In 1982, the slogan, which heralded the dawn of a new era for many elderly persons, appears
for the first time in the newspaper: bOld? No, third age and with pride.Q (ESP, 1982). Aging slogans

15
bBrazil has today more or less 7.7 million elderlyQ (GL, 1982), bHumanity is getting older and olderQ (FSP, 1982); bLife expectancy
grows and Brazil enters the club of the old; 11 million of elderly persons todayQ (GL, 1988).
16
The middle-class neighborhood Copacabana has an unusual high number of elderly people, most of them belonging to the middle-class.
Often these persons stayed in Rio de Janeiro when Brası́lia became, in 1960, the capital of the Country (see Veras, 1994). The aging
neighborhood has been portrayed in a humorous way in the film bCopacabanaQ by Brazilian filmmaker Carla Camurati.
22 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

began to demystify the process of aging as something merely negative or decadent (bElderly people
contemplate aging with tranquilityQ [FSP, 1986], bIn the USA it is in fashion to be oldQ [JB, 1986]). This
could be described as a period of category formation of the bthird ageQ; later the evoked images reflected
less the way old people still feel young, and more their efforts of not becoming old at all.17
The examples given in the articles are by the mid 1980s almost exclusively feminine, for example the
80-year-old Maude who has b. . .a commitment not only with life but also with thinking and acting. . .
with courage and perseverance.Q Another article analyses why one should not be afraid of aging, since
the third age can be the best period in life if only one takes care of oneself (DES, 1983). While the
former article (Maude) used examples of relatively famous individuals still working in advanced old age
and transcending aging through their work/fame, the second article focuses on unknown and much
younger persons who prevent aging by having the right attitudes.
This distinction is an important one. Third age, when seen as a struggle against becoming old, refers
to a much more extended period of time for the rich and the famous, who not only have more means for
avoiding the visible signs of aging, but also more often are able to continue with their work or other
activities because they want to and not because they have to. As Katz (1999) has shown, activity is a
major sign of successful (non-) aging.18 However, the way in which activity is perceived by younger age
groups is generally full of irony19—activity is mostly seen as empty bustling. Although 40% of Brazilian
men continue to work after turning 65, 20 the necessity of working combined with looking old (or not
having the means or time to invest in a younger image) seems to be linked to the description of these
individuals as old; working nevertheless demonstrates the right attitude, perceived as a good medicine
against entering fourth age. Work, as distinct from activity, is more democratic. This is exemplified in the
article bDoctors and psychologists give the same, simple recipe: activityQ (JT, 1990), the subtitle of
which is bLessons from very experienced youngster.Q In this article, there is a description of persons of
different social positions (a hairdresser beside an haute couture designer) who never have stopped
working. These persons are an ideal for positive aging to which highly moral claims are attached. bI got
used to not being a vagabond,Q says the 81-year-old hairdresser, and the owner of a shop states: bWho
stops, becomes an unhappy person.Q It is a short way from this ideal to calling certain pensioners
bvagabondsQ, as did former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 2001.
The more someone’s profession allows that person to continue working instead of being (only) active,
and the higher the social position of this person, the less the integrity of an elderly person is questioned:
Fernanda Montenegro is simply an actress; the end of the career of 75-year-old politician Antonio Carlos
Magalhães has only been discussed in terms of corruption and immorality, not age. In this sense, it is

17
Nevertheless, the irony with which some articles are written shows that the (probably much younger) journalists often do not regard
bthird ageQ as a category of bstill middle-agedQ, but rather as an attempt to be so. Take for example the following illusion, calling leisure
activities one’s work: bdYoungT Poli, 75 years old, leads the club. . . At every meeting there is Davi, dancing well the waltz, enchanting the
bgirlsQ. . .. Carlos, being called for a card game leaves me behind to start the game: dExcuse me, but now I will workTQ (GL, 1989).
18
In a weekly magazine, the bnew oldQ are described and a 76-year-old man, when asked about his life, says that hang gliding is bhis
therapyQ (against aging?). His secret of so much energy is bfaith in God, an iron constitution and not being attached to money. Ah... and projects,
not stopping to move.Q The comment of the journalist: bGauchão [name of the elderly man] has two children and wants to be a father again. Eta,
what an enthusiasm!Q (MA, 1996).
19
One afternoon in 1999, I participated at a third age ball in Rio de Janeiro, which was taking place in a community center. I experienced
mixed emotions regarding the event. On one hand, I felt an ironic detachment from the religion-like celebration of bwe are together, loneliness
never againQ (the anthem of the group). On the other hand, I enjoyed sharing the happiness of simply having a good time together.
20
More than 60% of these men who still work, are working in agriculture reveals a research by Ipea, the Brazilian Institute for Applied
Economics (JB 21.02.1999).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 23

also interesting to look at narratives from or about elderly persons that do not enter the bagingQ
folder of an archive such as the one used here. The analysis of work versus activity, the latter often
belittled and perceived to be a farce, needs to be given more importance in critical gerontology (see
Biggs, 2001).
In the early-to -mid 1980s, a new element appears in the articles: new rights for the elderly
population. In 1983, two articles announce that elderly persons now are allowed free use of
public transportation (FSP, 1983). Mention of these rights also appeared embedded in other
articles, such as in the ongoing presence of accounts of simple people getting extremely old.
In 1982 there was an account of Dona Aninha who died when she was 139 years old, and
who had lived in Belo Horizonte abandoned by her family in an asylum where she balways
prayed to God to give thanks for her long lifeQ (GL, 1982). The difference between this story
and the stories told before the early 1980s is the mention of a minimum salary, a right that
changed some traditional family structures in Brazil.21 People over 60 years developed a new
consciousness of having rights, without doubt a positive result of the third age movement. Later in the
1990s, the issue of rights would become in part separated from the third age movement because groups
such as bthe 147% movementQ (Brazilian pensioners who fought for a higher pension) would consider
themselves opposed to the bjust for leisureQ and apolitical third age movement (see Simões, 1998).
However, there are common roots of the discourse of the two time periods: the description of elderly
persons as a population in need, resulting in a heightened awareness on different levels that something
had to be changed.22

3.3. The medicalization of old age

Life starts at 60. (Veja, 2003 on the new wave of divorce within the elderly population in Brazil, in
part because of Viagra)
Between 1983 and 1985, seven articles discuss case studies of longevity. One of these is about an
American scientist who experiments on himself with a diet of subnutrition in order bto become 120 years
oldQ (ESP, 1983). There is a clear division between the prescriptions for the poor to accept their fate or to
look out for the helping hand of the social worker and, the prescriptions for the middle and upper classes
that are supported by scientific authority. The poor—humble ex-slaves, caboclos (racial description of
White and Indian mixture), and the backward matutos—are described as becoming old through faith in
God (or by practicing sub-nutrition bnaturallyQ). These people have to accept their destiny and poverty. A
Japanese man, the bworld’s oldest man,Q became 120 years old because he leaves his problems in the
hands of bGod, the sun, and Buddha.Q The image of divine will is reinforced by the suggestion of a
miracle when the article states that b . . .one cannot explain yet, why his white hair is turning black
again.Q (FSP, 1985).

21
In a favela (shantytown) in Rio de Janeiro, elderly women we interviewed informed us about the fact that their prestige within the family
depended substantially on their aposentadoria (pension). Because the unemployment rate in Brazil is quite high, many elderly become the head
of the family if there is a pension, often raising also their grandchildren for their children (Leibing & Groisman, 2001; on Brazilian pensioners as
political actors see Simões, 1998).
22
Other examples could be mentioned, such as the public outcry about the long waiting lines of pensioners picking up their small pension
at the bank or the bSanta Genoveva scandalQ that made public the animal-like conditions of some institutions for abandoned and frail elderly
people. From that time on, more politicians could be seen in the media fighting for the cause of the elderly (the owners of the mentioned bclinicQ,
though, one of them also a politician, continue to work).
24 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

While miraculous accounts of very old and very poor continue to appear, similar accounts are written
centered on more educated Brazilians. The difference here is that a divine force is not the source of a ripe
old age, but science.23 This evokes Foucault’s concept of the new pastoral power, ensuring salvation in
this world, in which medicine plays an important role (Foucault, 1983). Furthermore, the gaze is directed
on life before old age, rather than life during old age itself. Take as an example special diets, already
mentioned above, that presume willpower and a rational management of one’s body. These special diets
are not only reminiscent of Max Weber’s bthis-worldly asceticismQ, but also of Douglas’ (1996)
observation that b[w]e are indeed witnessing a popular movement of non-consumption in our midstQ (p.
164). Old age now has to be prevented like a disease; aging becomes a risk factor. As Douglas writes,
b[i]n the politics of risk two goods are balanced against one another: one relies on industrial
development, the other looks to a return to nature. Both sides promise good health for humanity but their
prescriptions are totally opposedQ (ibid, p. 163).
In 1986, for example, a doctor from São Paulo observes that from birth onwards one has a
responsibility to prevent aging. Organic, psychological, social and environmental factors threaten
successful aging which is described as a physical decline. bPsychological problems accelerate agingQ
is the title of that article (FSP, 1986) and in another article a b[d]octor says that the elderly have to
live peacefully to avoid dementiaQ (JB, 1986). Psychological peace seems to be the earthly variation
of poor people’s faith in God and neatly fits into Brazil’s highly valued ideal of bkeeping coolQ (não
esquenta) or beach monkey on its branchQ, censuring the non-acceptance of one’s social position (see
DaMatta, 1989: 75).
Body and mind increasingly become the objectified output of the rational brain. While plastic surgery
for a Miss Brazil is accepted—although the authenticity of her beauty is still discussed—for an elderly
woman, plastic surgery is almost a requirement to be considered beautiful.24 New products for the
bmature beautyQ, special programs in gyms and other organized leisure activities emerge on the market
(bThe market wakes up to the vein of gold of maturityQ, ESP, 1996).25 Beauty—a dominant topic in the
general media in Brazil—is nevertheless a topic of minor consideration within the aging folder used here
for analysis, and when it appears, it is often with an underlying irony. The plasticity of one’s identity
depends on the right interventions on the psychological and physical level; doctors and psychologists
became the (not so new) priests. The interiorization of these values can be best described by the
following excerpt from an article entitled bIt is important to stay active, to make friends and to have a
good dietQ (JB, 1998), which describes two (female) examples of successful aging:
bThey spend the whole day out and about, in classes, lectures, physical activities, as well as out for
a little beer with their friends—all that without mentioning the weekend trips. During their few
hours at home, they are perpetually speaking on the telephone. It is this routine, typical for a
teenager, which belongs to Diva Gomes de Miranda and Maria das Mercês Monteiro. . . . Diva is 81
and Maria 61 years old. bMy hair became white, but my spirit did not decline. On the contrary, I

23
A certain bfashionQ can nevertheless be observed among the urban high society ladies, who show their religiousness by helping the poor
and frequenting the new charismatic religions. These religions emphasize cure and help during life on earth, not afterwards like the Catholic
religion. For an analysis of the overlapping of religious and scientific ideologies, see Fuller (1997).
24
Miss Third Age 1996 was judged by bher plastic surgery, her elegance, and empathy with the audience.Q The prize for the winner: a trip
to the United States, a plastic surgery, and a ring (MA, 1996 and ESP, 1996).
25
See, for example, Meredith Minkler on bGold in Gray: Reflections on Business’ Discovery of the Elderly MarketQ in the USA (Minkler,
1991).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 25

feel happier each day,Q commemorates Diva, the friendly lady. . . She has a good reason to
celebrate: she and Maria know how to become old. In the United States, which has an enormous
elderly population, there exists an expression for this: successful aging (italics and English in the
original), meaning good aging.

bThe most important thing is to remain active. I always worked and had friends. I simply
maintained this, and it only became better,Q teaches Diva. . . It is in the phases of youth and
adulthood that aging is designed, which should not connote incapacity and disease. bAging is not
an accident. It is a reflection of how we behaved during our life. . .,Q says the geriatrician Karla
Fromuller. Some diseases are not the result of the sum of the years, but of how these years have
been lived. bAfter 60, there is a higher incidence of problems which started when these people were
young and were not treated, such as hypertension, diabetes and back pain,Q says Karla. Loss of
memory, naturally associated with old age, can be avoided by activities that stimulate the brain.Q
(. . .)

Aging is increasingly linked to a physical and psychological understanding of the aging person.
However, as the excerpt shows, third age is less linked to medical science per se, but rather to the
individual’s effort to prevent decline. There exists a division. Whereas doctors treat diseases that can
be linked to the aforementioned fourth age that is the result of a wrong attitude in life, social
workers, psychologists, and gerontologists specialize in the third age and as such specialize in
preventing disease. Geriatricians, who are part of the medical profession, nevertheless understand
themselves to be primarily preventing the damages of aging. In this sense, they are part of the
boptimisticQ science, as Élie Metchnikoff, who coined the term bgerontologyQ, described this new
field in 1907. (The book bEssais OptimistesQ [Metchnikoff, 1907] can be found in the library of the
Institute of Psychiatry in Rio de Janeiro, pointing to a much longer exchange with foreign ideas on
aging than the ones described here).
The medicalization of aging does not only manifest itself by describing leisure activities as
bcognitive trainingQ or as preventative for a number of diseases, but also by a specific
psychologization, or individuality. These btechnologies of the selfQ (Foucault, 1988), with their
continuous messages about bpositive agingQ, are most clearly expressed within the concept of bself-
esteemQ frequently used within the literature. There is probably not one article on third age that does
not quote a gerontological expert (social worker, psychologist, etc.) who explains her interventions
as baugmenting the self-esteem of elderly personsQ. Numerous examples could be given. One
example is in regards to the Miss Third Age candidates: bdthe goal is to give as many prizes as
possible (for the Miss Third Age candidates), in order to augment the self-esteem and to promote
socially the persons of third age,T explains Eliana . . . , the coordinator of the eventQ (ESP, 1998).
Another example is in regards to the difficulties of socially integrating elderly persons in the social
work organization financed by industry, the SESC. Gerontologist Marcelo Salgado states bthe more
these persons [elderly persons] are able to reduce the prejudice, the more their self-esteem will grow,
and they will begin taking more care of themselves and truly living. (. . .) Everything that re-
establishes the narcissism of the elderly can help them better admire, respect, and trust themselvesQ
(ESP, 1998).
As many authors have argued (e.g., Debert, 2002a,b), people who are not able to cope with the
high demands and expectations of the third age movement, of transcending the signs of aging, are
26 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

easily blamed. Given the importance to a rational management of one’s self, it is not surprising
that a disease like Alzheimer’s with its fading cognitive functioning would become such a great
threat.
In Brazil, the awareness of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), as a new category of aging, occurred
approximately ten years later than in North America. It was first considered a bforeign problemQ. Like
the articles on aging, texts on dementia talked about foreign medical authorities. The first article from
1979 claimed Alzheimer’s disease was battackingQ the United States. In the following 10 years, the
articles focused on foreign research. Translations from United Press International (UPI) (bA new step for
combating Alzheimer’s diseaseQ; FSP, 1985) or Fortune (bThe newest marvel in medicine: a pill for the
memoryQ; MA, 1986), articles relying on the New England Journal of Medicine (JB, 1986), American
Journal of Science (GL, 1987) or other scientists from France, Sweden, and mainly the USA provide
fragmented scientific knowledge and a number of contradictory theories. Several hypotheses on the
cause of the mysterious disease (mainly hypotheses involving genetic causes, but also some linked to a
virus, head trauma, or arteriosclerosis) are paired with a great optimism regarding a cure in the near
future. Alzheimer’s seemed to be something completely unrelated to Brazilian reality because Brazil was
never mentioned in these accounts. This lack of relation to Brazil was compounded because most of the
articles referred to research and discoveries on the molecular level. Alzheimer’s seemed to occur in an
abstract, distant world of biomedical technologies, as opposed to the world of families in which the old
and sick are normally cared for. In addition, the great optimism and trust in biomedical technologies
contrasts with the notion that this disease is a mysterious one, affecting a huge number of elderly
persons.
A second phase begins more or less around 1993, when Alzheimer’s disease appeared for the
first time as a national problem, linked to the demographic transition in Brazil, in the newspaper
Jornal do Brasil from Rio de Janeiro. The article emphasizes the ignorance of doctors and family
members in diagnosing and leading with the bnewQ condition. Ronald Reagan’s public declaration
was also important for the Brazilian media to create awareness about the disease. From this point
on, Alzheimer’s was a disease that could affect anybody and articles regularly stated that 1
million Brazilians suffer from AD (without ever revealing the source of these numbers). Pressure
on the government increased. Because of this kind of pressure, the controversial medicine
Tacrine,26 seen as a certain hope by family caregivers to slow down the effects of the dementia, was
imported to Brazil.
Alzheimer’s had the status of a disease of the modern world, a disease of civilization. And although
the content of most of the articles did not change that much in comparison to those that had run from
1979 to the early 1990s—for example, discussing Alzheimer mostly on the molecular level and reporting
new drugs or genes indicating a possible cure—an increasing number of articles also addressed the risk
factors depending on individual behavior and risk management. Especially in the articles of the last few
years, regular use of the brain is recommended in addition to warnings against smoking or excessive
television-watching. In short: an active and responsible life is imperative.
This short overview of the penetration of Alzheimer’s disease into Brazilian public discourse on
pathological aging (see Leibing, 2002a) has been chosen in order to point out a similar pattern in the
media coverage of dagingT and dAlzeimer’s diseaseT: through the help of the media a bforeign diseaseQ is

26
It had severe side effects and its effectiveness for improving cognition had been questioned (e.g., Flicker, 1999).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 27

bimportedQ and becomes national by merging foreign and local values and knowledge in an inseparable
way.

4. Discussion

Earlier, I have argued (see Footnote 7), that the description of the changing public discourse on aging
in the Brazilian media begs two questions: (1) how aging categories are formed and knowledge
regarding aging is transmitted; and (2) what these categories and values mean for persons in divergent
contexts and positions. Both questions need to be further developed in a subsequent article; however,
some preliminary observations based on the material discussed in this article can be made.
This material shows that a great part of information on aging in Brazilian print media stems from
foreign, mainly U.S. American, ideas. Especially in the first years examined here, these ideas are direct
translations from scientific authorities abroad (see Moura, 1984 on the history of the penetration of
American culture into Brazil). Ortiz (1999, esp. pp. 182–206) critically discusses a cultural dependence
on the USA (and earlier on France). Without denying the strong expansionism and economic interest on
which foreign (notably U.S.) ideas penetrate into Brazilian culture, he nevertheless shows that the
foreign influence was mainly dominant at the beginning of the modern Brazilian state, when institutions
were still fragile. Although Brazil became increasingly bnational,Q Ortiz argues the myth of a culturally
dependent nation persists until today. This is also true for the way in which aging as an ideology has
been bimportedQ into Brazil. (The same happened with the material distributed by the first national
Alzheimer organization APAZ, which was mainly translated from Alzheimer International; APAZ
president Jacob Guterman, personal communication).
Three notions of bforeignnessQ can be discovered in our discussion: (1) aging as an altogether problem
of the other (the first phase of blongevityQ and the first phase of bAlzheimerQ); (2) aging as a national
problem but where bsalvationQ lays in a mostly mythical (simple, ascetic, natural) botherQ (the second
phase of blongevityQ and a general notion of Alzheimer as a civilization disease); and (3) the concrete
translation of foreign texts and commentary (when aging became a matter for specialist and the first
phase of bAlzheimerQ). With the time, articles on aging became more national: local problems were
discussed and Brazilian specialists quoted. What Ortiz’s and other studies nevertheless do not take into
account is the fact that foreign elements often have been bnationalizedQ in these accounts. This process
needs a more careful analysis, which at the end questions a presumed, clear distinction between national
and foreign.
Looking at the history of ideas on aging, it is also important to keep in mind that many values that
appear to be new discoveries actually stem from older texts and/or already existed as common
knowledge on old age in Brazil and other countries (although embedded in different moral systems).
Good old age and longevity as linked to asceticism or hard work have been mentioned, but it should also
be noted that the self-responsibility for one’s aging or activity is not new (for an extensive discussion on
these issues, see Cole, 1992, also Marshall & Katz, 2002).
The second question, regarding the integration of aging ideologies in daily life, points to the
difference between Brazilian urban aging and aging in many North American and European countries.
The main values associated with aging and its shift towards third and fourth age (or successful and
unsuccessful aging) do not differ much from North American and many European contexts. Edler (1999)
studied the universe of students in a university of third age in Rio de Janeiro and showed the presence of
28 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31

a total commitment to third age ideology within the university. Although, as Alves (2001) writes, third
age is just a web of signification on which elderly persons variously rely, Edler’s study shows a strong
commitment to a third age ideology and reveals values that are implicit in many other ways of talking
about elderly persons.
This commitment to third age ideology or the incorporation of its main values is found in other
contexts. During fieldwork with elderly women in a shanty town in Rio de Janeiro (Leibing & Groisman,
2001), where women were not able to participate in the general consumerism linked to third age
ideology, the pension received by most of the women was nevertheless central in defining the women’s
value within the community: bWhen we have it [she makes a sign of money], we are someone. If we
don’t, they [her family] couldn’t care lessQ, said one woman. The prescriptions by the doctors concerning
their eating habits—most of these women suffered from hypertension—were denounced as illusionary
due to costs. This group also stressed their lack of idleness and each of the women denied knowing
someone who suffered from a memory impairment (although at least two famous members of the
community had been diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer’s disease). While third age usually is lived
in the present (see Leibing, 2002b; Cohen, 1998), these women lamented profoundly the bnew timesQ
that they perceived as immoral and lacking in respect. They also denounced the growing individualism
in the community—a community in which men often do not live past the age of 25 due to the war
between drug traffickers and police officers, the latter group not rarely implicated in criminal activities.
In this context, the contrast between what is considered successful aging and the rough reality of
becoming old in an environment where aging is not necessarily something natural,27 as it is in the higher
classes in Brazil, points to the exclusiveness and not the inclusiveness of third age ideologies.

5. Conclusion

Many Brazilians get older and find satisfaction in life without relying too heavily on the new
ideologies of aging. The indirect effect of these new categories, however, cannot be underestimated. This
article addressed the main values linked to Brazilian elderly persons as they appear in the printed media.
There was a first phase of longevity, entwined with traditional Christian values of asceticism and
acceptance of one’s social position. This changed when elderly persons were discovered (bthe
demographic transitionQ) and several institutions declared this population as needing social interventions.
One of these strategies was denying or relativizing old age and decay. Third age is entwined with values
such as will power, independence and constant activity. The middle-aged person was preventing herself
from the signs of aging that increasingly became symptoms of a disease called aging. The shift from old
age to third age extended bagingQ into younger years and created a new segment within the course of life:
third age as bnot yet oldQ.
One might agree with Guita Debert who argues that bthe images of elderly persons in the [Brazilian]
media play an active part in the creation of new social hierarchies by transmitting aging as a self-inflicted
disease, a result of neglecting one’s body and well-beingQ (Debert, 2002a,b). As we have seen, what is
considered to be positive aging has undergone several changes in Brazil, as in many countries in the

27
In 2002, the life expectancy in Brazil was 68.5 years (72.5 years for women, 64.8 years for men). In a rich state like Rio Grande do Sul,
the numbers are considerably higher: 73.4 years (77.8 years for women, 69.2 years for men).
 A. Leibing / Journal of Aging Studies 19 (2005) 15–31 29

world. The consequences of this have a direct impact on how people are able to critically engage with
social programs and the way one positions oneself towards elderly persons. In a relatively poor country
like Brazil, the recent changes can be dramatic if consumption continues to be an unquestioned and
important part of the new aging ideologies. Elderly persons are also trapped between a propagated self-
sufficiency, necessary for positive aging, which means that any form of dependency can be easily
interpreted as a sign of an undesirable fourth age, especially when encountering the insufficient social
programs in the country.
One of the characteristics for the Brazilian reality is an accentuated reliance on technologies of the
body, like plastic surgery and medications in order to look younger. In this sense, it is possible to
diversify bthe mask of agingQ, an image which Featherstone and Hepworth (1991) used to describe an
binner selfQ of many elderly persons who in reality feel like a younger person, trapped in a body with
wrinkles and gray hair which is perceived as a bbetrayalQ (see also Kaufman, 1986). However, greater
plasticity of the physical self as a result of modern interventions—which are especially naturalized in
Brazil and available not only for the rich—might actually lead to the opposite feeling: the younger
appearance, due to plastic surgery, or a generally positive, jovial way of being might betray binnerQ
necessities. As Brazilian writer Lya Luft once complained: elderly persons in Brazil almost have the
obligation to have sexual intercourse all the time, just to maintain their juvenile image (Luft, personal
communication and JB, 1999; see Brigueiro, 2001). Third age for Lya Luft is a farce—old people with
little hats on their heads, dancing at a party with the obligation to be happy.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Susana Camargo (Editora Abril, São Paulo, Brazil) and Elisabeth Reuter (Gruner
and Jahr, Hamburg, Germany). Part of this research was financed by the John Simon Guggenheim
Memorial Foundation. An initial outline of this text has been presented at the Symposium bBoundaries
of the Acceptable and Unacceptable: Good Citizens and Healthy Aging,Q during the annual congress of
the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association in Toronto, Canada, May 29–June 1, 2002, and a
longer version on the history of Alzheimer disease in Brazil was presented at The 8th International
Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, Alzheimer’s Association, Stockholm,
Sweden, July 20–25, 2002. I thank Stephen Katz and Jennie W. Robinson for their respective invitations.
I am grateful to Jennifer Cuffe for the corrections and suggestions.

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quoted articles by the author

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