Real Life Superheroes & Successful Ageing

The image of the older person is "often depicted as an inevitable onset of deficiencies", associated with loss, renunciation, physical frailty, dependence, and care. The negative image supports the notion that age and its stereotypical deficits need to be postponed ... and sport is considered to be an efficient measure "to escape ageing". It is, without doubt, a deficit perspective.





This very deficit perspective is changing. "Today, ageing is understood as a dynamic process, respectively, a certain span in the continuum of birth, life and death. This interpretation is based on the fact that every stage of life allows individual development and that later life represents a period with its own specific orientations and values." Hence, we need to focus on opportunities and activity options in later life, i.e. what gerontology refers to as "successful ageing": adapting to the facts and exploiting one's potentials for active living and personal development (Tokarski, 2004).





The following aspects need to be considered when discussing sport of the elderly:
- changes in the conceptual model of ageing have led to ageing adopting a completely new image,
- daily routine, leisure and sport activities of elderly persons need to be included when analysing sport of the elderly and when understanding "life-long learning" as "life-long physical and mental exercising",
- addressing encouragement and barriers,
- promoting the ideal of continued physical exercise involvement through later life.




- Tokarski, W. (2004) Sport of the Elderly. Kinesiology, 36, 98-103
- photographs by Dean Bradshaw ("Real Life Superheroes") via

Narrative images: "Free Hugs"

Johnny Nguyen's photograph of Sgt. Bret Barnum hugging 12-year-old protestor Devonte Hart at a Fergusan demonstration in Portland was shared with hundreds of thousands of people in the past days.
"Devonte stood alone in front of a police barrier, wearing a "Free Hugs" sign around his neck as he gazed at the police officers with tears streaming down his face. Sgt. Barnum, who has been with the force for 21 years, approached the young boy and extended his hand. After making small talk, the officer asked why Devonte was crying. According to his mother, the 12-year-old expressed "his concerns regarding the level of police brutality towards young black kids," to which Barnum replied, "Yes. I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The officer then asked if he could have a hug, resulting in this beautifully touching photo captured by Nguyen." (literally via)



- What was it about Devonte that compelled you to stay at the scene and eventually capture your extraordinarily powerful photo?
What compelled me about Devonte was the fact that he was the only one in the midst of a hundred protestors holding signs that could otherwise be seen as violent, angry, hateful, and graphic, who had a sign around his neck that said "Free Hugs." This opposite was what immediately drew me to Devonte. He also had tears running down his face when he hugged people. It wasn't until Sgt. Barnum and Devonte started to speak that I knew I had to really stay at the scene. The stark juxtaposition between White American Cop and Young African-American Boy is what got me.

- Is there a message you want to convey through this photo?
The message I want to convey with this photo is that if hate is the problem, then love is the fix. Love and compassion is the real answer. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." We must come together, for even a moment, like Devonte and Sgt. Barnum. This photo has become a symbol of humanity, and I hope people can take away from that as much as possible in troubled times like now.

- What's your reaction to your photo being shared with hundreds of thousands of people as it spreads virally across the internet?
I am absolutely honored to see my photo get this much exposure. I believe that a photo isn't complete until it is communicated, and it's gone beyond that. I'm just glad I can do my part not only as a photographer but as a contributing member of society to push the message of positivity, hope, and humanity. It's a dream come true. (literally via)



photographs by Johnny Nguyen via and via, for more photographs taken in Portland see

Torture

"Once governments use or allow torture, no one is safe. Almost anyone can be a victim, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or politics. (...)

However, some individuals and groups are more vulnerable than others. (...) People belonging to a particular religious or other minority group, or targeted because of their identity, also face increased risk. (...) Many victims come from already disadvantaged groups: women; children; members of ethnic minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people; and, overwhelmingly, the poor. These are the very people who find access to redress difficult or impossible. (...)



Rape and other sexual attacks on women by state agents are reported in many countries. Women may have less access to legal remedies and be subject to discriminatory laws, making it even harder for them to secure justice for torture.

Both women and men – but mostly women – are subject to gender-based torture, including in the form of rape and other sexual violence. Some forms of torture and other ill-treatment are unique to women including forced abortions, denial of abortions, forced sterilization and female genital mutilation. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex prisoners will also be targeted in different ways from heterosexual prisoners. For example, transgender prisoners are often held in facilities for their gender at birth rather than their gender of choice, and lesbian and gay prisoners will more often be targeted for sexual and other violence than heterosexual prisoners, whether by other prisoners/detainees or prison staff.



Measures to combat torture must therefore be gender-sensitive and gender inclusive as well as being sensitive and inclusive of the specific measures needed to ensure the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons."
Amnesty International, 2014



via Torture in 2014. 30 Years of Broken Promises. Amnesty International

Dieting Women

"A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent poltical sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one."
Naomi Wolf



Vogue's recent slideshow "The Best Lingerie Comes in All Sizes" shows so-called "plus-sized" models. Also recently, Calvin Klein's " US size 10" or "UK size 14" model Myla Dalbesio, so far "the biggest girl Calvin Klein has ever worked with" (via) became famous. She regards herself as an "inbetween" because she is neither anorexic nor plus-sized: "I love that by opening this discussion, I can also (hopefully) open some doors for other models, friends of mine, that have always straddled the line between straight size and plus. True body diversity doesn't mean only sizes 0's and 2's then jumping to size 16 and up. There is a middle ground." (via)
About twenty years ago, average models weighed 8% less than average women. Today, they weigh 23% less (via). From 1959 to 1978, Playboy's playmates' weights decreased significantly. So did Miss America Pageants with an average yearly decline of 0.17 kg (0.37 lb.) within the decades examined (Garner & Garfinkel, 1980). It can be assumed that these trends accelerated in the past years.



- Garner, D. M. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1980) Cultural Expectations of Thinness in Women. Psychological Reports, 47, 483-491
- photographs by Richard Avedon (1923-2004) via and via

Akira Kurosawa writes a letter to Ingmar Bergman

"A human is not really capable of creating really good works until he reaches eighty."
Akira Kurosawa



Swedish director Ernst Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) retired after three Academy Awards, six Golden Globes, seven Cannes prizes, two BAFTAs, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, and many more honours. Once he said: "I probably do mourn the fact that I no longer make films."
In 1988, he received a letter (via) from Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998),  "Asian of the Century" and "the" filmmaker admired by Bergman, Fellini, Polanski, Bertolucci, Altman, Scorsese ... just to mention a few. Kurosawa was said to have expressed his engagement with ageing and spiritual search through the medium of film and that as he aged he, "appear(ed) to become more spiritualised, expressing transcendence, resignation and/or holy rage" (Geist quoted by Jones, 2002).

Dear Mr. Bergman,  

Please let me congratulate you upon your seventieth birthday.  

Your work deeply touches my heart every time I see it and I have learned a lot from your works and have been encouraged by them. I would like you to stay in good health to create more wonderful movies for us.  

In Japan, there was a great artist called Tessai Tomioka who lived in the Meiji Era (the late 19th century). This artist painted many excellent pictures while he was still young, and when he reached the age of eighty, he suddenly started painting pictures which were much superior to the previous ones, as if he were in magnificent bloom. Every time I see his paintings, I fully realize that a human is not really capable of creating really good works until he reaches eighty.  

A human is born a baby, becomes a boy, goes through youth, the prime of life and finally returns to being a baby before he closes his life. This is, in my opinion, the most ideal way of life.  

I believe you would agree that a human becomes capable of producing pure works, without any restrictions, in the days of his second babyhood.  

I am now seventy-seven (77) years old and am convinced that my real work is just beginning.  

Let us hold out together for the sake of movies.  

With the warmest regards,  

Akira Kurosawa

- Jones, K. (2002) The Spiritual Dimension: a gerotranscendental take on Akira Kurosawa's film, "Ran", via
- photographs of Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa via and via and via and via

Touchable Memories

People born blind have capabilities to create visuo-spatial images. In a range of studies on visual imagery of blind vs. sighted people, congenitally blind persons showed only slight differences in performance. They did not perform worse than sighted persons in tasks involving pictorial and spatial representations of two-dimensional matrices, only in three-dimensional ones. Their dreams are vivid and self-engaging. Visualisation seems to be possible without previous experience (Bértolo, 2005).

"Touchable Memories" is a project that helps the blind to physically re-experience visual memories. Images are reproduced on the basis of 3D sculptures or reliefs.



Bértolo, H. (2005) Visual imagery without visual perception? Psicológica, 26, 173-188.

Narrative images: Singing freedom songs in 1963

Robert Fahsenfeldt, owner of a segregated lunchroom in the racially tense Eastern Shore community of Cambridge, Maryland, douses a white integrationist with water, on July 8, 1963. The integrationist, Edward Dickerson, was among three white and eight African American protesters who knelt on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant to sing freedom songs. A raw egg, which Fahsenfeldt had broken over Dickerson's head moments earlier, still is visible on the back of Dickerson's head. The protesters were later arrested (literally via).



photo via

International Men's Day

"Objectives of International Men's Day include a focus on men's and boy's health, improving gender relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male role models. It is an occasion for men to celebrate their achievements and contributions, in particular their contributions to community, family, marriage, and child care while highlighting the discrimination against them."
(internationalmensday.com)



... "highlighting the discrimination against them" is surely more challenging than finding fields in which women are discriminated against or confronted with prejudices. But it is possible to identify them: traditionally female dominated occupations or "pink collar jobs".



Men working as nurses, secretaries, grade-school teachers or in the kindergarten used to be very rare. Due to the recession, men were "forced" to take up "different" careers (via). Male caregivers, particularly men teaching toddlers, can raise eyebrows ... and be confronted with a range of insinuations and parents who have little understanding for their choice of profession (via). According to a survey, men distrust "male nannies more than female pilots". In the "mistrust ranking", male nannies were followed by male midwives, female pilots, female mechanics, male primary schoolteachers, female surgeons, males nurses, and female bus drivers (via). Still, even in female dominated occupations men usually earn more than women (via).



In general, men do not really seem to face discrimination in "female occupations" (e.g. nursing, elementary school teaching, librarianship, social work) but rather prejudice from people outside the professions. In contrast to women, however, they may encounter structural advantages which enhance their careers. Men do face barriers, too. But they are different (Williams, 1992) and - according to empirical findings - often they even benefit from their minority status (differential treatment, assumptions of enhanced leadership and a more careerist attitude to work) (Simpson, 2004).



"Our lives have changed dramatically, but the notions we have about what it means to be a man remain locked in a pattern set decades ago, when the world looked very different.”
Michael Kimmel, sociologist



- Simpson, r. (2004) Masculinity at Work: The Experiences of Men in Female Dominated Occupations. Work Employment and Society, 18(2)
- Williams, C. L. (1992) The Glass Escalator: Hidden Advantages for Men in the "Female" Professions. Social Problems, 39(3), 253-267.
- photographs (Just For Men World Beard and Moustache Championships 2014) by Craig Mitchelldyer via, for more click

Religion & Ethnic Prejudice

"The role of religion is paradoxical. It makes prejudice and it unmakes prejudice."
Allport (1954)

The relationship between religiosity and ethnic prejudice is rather complex. Results of empirical studies support both positive and negative correlations between religion and prejudice. According to a meta-analysis by Hall et al., it depends on the aspects of religion that are considered. In general, religious dimensions such as extrinsic religiosity or fundamentalism positively correlate with prejudice (i.e., the higher religiosity, the higher the prejudice) while intrinsic religiosity and quest religiosity negatively correlate with ethnic prejudice (i.e. the higher religiosity, the lower the prejudice). Fundamentalism per se, however, does not seem to be automatically connected with prejudice. If authoritarianism is controlled for, for instance, the positive correlation between religiosity and prejudice vanishes (Johnson et al., 2010).



- Johnson, M. K., Rowatt, W. C. & LaBouff, J. (2010). Priming Christian Religious Concepts Increases Racial Prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(2), 119-126.
- photograph of Ethel Muhammad Sharrieff (1922-2002), daughter of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, by Gordon Parks (1963) via

Quoting David Bowie

"I'm well past the age where I'm acceptable. You get to a certain age and you are forbidden access. You're not going to get the kind of coverage that you would like in music magazines, you're not going to get played on radio and you're not going to get played on television. I have to survive on word of mouth." 
David Bowie



(...) And I'm running down the street of life
And I'm never gonna let you die
And I'm never ever gonna get old
And I'm never ever gonna get

I'm never ever gonna get
I'm never ever gonna get old
And I'm never ever gonna get
And I'm never ever gonna get
Never ever gonna get old

David Bowie, Never Get Old (2003)



photographs via and via