Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging, and Ageism - Softcover

Barbara MacDonald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0933216874 ISBN 13: 9780933216877

Publisher: Spinsters Ink, 1991

Synopsis

Still a breaking-through-the-barriers book after 22 years, this expanded edition of the classic begins with a tribute by Lise Weil, "In the Service of Truth: Remembering Barbara Macdonald." Barbara died at the age of 86 in June 2000. It also contains two talks Barbara gave, "Professionalism Is Not Benign" and "Old Women's Human Rights." An afterword by Cynthia Rich points to the impact Barbara made on the understanding of women and ageing and promises that she will continue to have a major impact on our lives.

"Barbara was the first to identify ageism as a central feminist issue...to point out that young women's alienation from old women, their dread of becoming them, their revulsion toward old women's bodies, is the direct result of society ('Your power as a younger woman is measured by the distance you can keep between you and older women')."--Lise Weil

About this title

Review:

When they got together in the late 1970s, Barbara Macdonald, a 60-something lesbian, and her lover, Cynthia Rich, who is 20 years younger, learned that old women and young women are treated very differently, even within the women's movement. In response to this inequity, Macdonald wrote essays and open letters to feminist and social service organizations comparing ageism to racism. Her autobiographical essays describe an amazing lesbian childhood lived before the publication of The Well of Loneliness, a college career threatened by the revelation of a love affair with a woman, and frustration with young women's patronizing older women. Rich's essays examine how words and visual images in popular and feminist texts contribute to demonizing and demeaning older women.

About the Author:

Cynthia Rich (b. 1933) has published fiction, articles, and reviews. She has taught ESL in San Diego and worked intensely on issues of civil rights and the environment.

Barbara Macdonald (deceased) and Cynthia Rich were partners for 26 years, during which they lived with and explored the ageism they experienced as a couple separated by 20 years in age. Barbara wrote and was vocal about what she perceived; Cynthia commented on it.

About this edition

• Publisher: Spinsters Ink
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0933216874
• ISBN 13: 9780933216877
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 152