Older Female Influencers Are Changing The Narrative And The Stigma Associated With Ageing, New Research Finds

The ways older female influencers choose to share themselves and their lives on social media is challenging long-held assumptions about female ageing, reveals new research from Durham University Business School.

The study, undertaken by Professor Benedetta Cappellini alongside colleagues from Aalborg University in Denmark, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Reading has, for the first time, examined gendered ageism through the lens of women themselves.

Previous studies, the researchers note, have focused on society’s ideas of older women and how they should present themselves; what they wear and how they should behave. Such perspectives, they note, not only perpetuate a wholly incorrect reality, but are damaging for women by devaluing them in both work and in society.

“There are common stereotypes such as the traditional granny or the ageless beauty,” says Professor Cappellini, co-author of the study. “Even though companies are becoming more inclusive in public activities such as advertising, the older women featured are often portrayed in unrealistic ways.”

Falling short of these expectations, the researchers note, place older women at a disadvantage and can make them feel inferior.

The researchers interviewed a selection of European female influencers aged 50 and over, who were active in sharing their lives on Instagram, and had amassed over 1,000 followers. Participants were questioned about their experiences of displaying their ageing by examining their posting habits; the content they chose to share, the brands they engaged with, the response to sharing their bodies online and how they navigated any negative feedback.

“Platforms such as Instagram have been characterised as liberatory spaces where older women can reclaim representational space, and celebrate their age and their bodies,” continues Professor Cappellini. Recent years have seen an increasing number of social media profiles used ageing-related hashtags such as #oldfluencer, #silversisters et cetera.”

The results revealed that the influencers agreed that turning fifty brought with it many positives; such having more time to invest in themselves due to having less work or family responsibilities to manage.

However, all respondents also experienced becoming invisible or devalued in society, with one comparing the drop-off in interest from brand partnerships after her turning fifty to “lemmings falling off a cliff.”

Instagram was viewed by all interviewees as a way to counteract this shift, publicly raising the visibility of ageing women in a confident, optimistic way.

Older female influencers were found to typically adopt one of three approaches online;

- Ordering Displays: Where women internalised their feelings around how society perceived them and produced posts that complied with those norms
- Reordering Displays: Where women strived to defy societal limitations on what 50+ women should be, prioritising youthful appearance, personality and activities in posts
- Disordering Displays: Where women deliberately challenged or entirely ignored societal expectations, posting what they wished without fear of judgement

Those who engaged in Ordering Displays were typically cautious of posting images of themselves, but did so in order to drive engagement. They chose to cover up areas of their body they found to be shameful or lacking, and explicitly posted about this experience in their image captions. Such activity, the researchers noted, whilst uncomfortable often resulted in positive affirming discussions amongst followers.

Reordering Displays were noted by the researchers to come from women not recognising themselves as “past it” or unattractive. However, such women were found to invest heavily in their appearance; following strict diet and exercise to avoid the accusation of “letting themselves go.” Their payoff came in brand endorsements, but participants revealed the pressure to “age successfully”, sharing that many desirable brands only continued to engage if their appearance remained “relatable but aspirational”, to other older women.

Influencers with Disordered Display behaviour were far more liberated, whether through overtly provocative posts focused on body image or engaging in activities many would deem them too old for, driving value through honest expression, support and challenging criticism.

However, the researchers noted that social media can also contribute to women feeling the need to withdraw, and conform with societal ideas of how women of their age should behave. Social media also provided a means for women to make age and gender-based criticisms of each other for their online activities.

“Many participants referred to criticism from women as particularly difficult to take,” says Professor Cappellini. “This is not surprising, as they often mentioned their own sense of solidarity with other women as motivating their influencing activities.”

The study “All in order? Older female influencers’ displays of ageing on social media,”is published in Sociology, the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association

For further information, please contact Kerry Ruffle at BlueSky Education - [email protected] / +44(0)1582 790701