"We're Not Old!": Older Women's Negotiation of Aging and Oldness

This article is based on participant observation research at a seniors' center in central Canada in which the writer sought to acquire an understanding of how older adults define, interpret, & negotiate their realities & identities. Through activity & group membership, the center members -- the majority of whom are single, older women between the ages of 50 & 90 -- seek to distance themselves from the category of "old" & the accompanying ageist stereotypes. Striving to establish & preserve their precarious membership in the "not old," center members struggle to reconcile their belief & experience of older adulthood as a time of activity, health, & happiness with their ever-present fear of declining health & the realities of widowhood & the loss of youthful attractiveness. [Copyright 1999 Elsevier Inc.]