The Eye of Beauty: Creating a Place for Elite and Aging Elders Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Kuhn, Meredith Green Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 15:56:12 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193736 THE EYE OF BEAUTY: CREATING A PLACE FOR ELITE AND AGING ELDERS by Meredith Anne Green Kuhn _____________________ Copyright © Meredith Anne Green Kuhn 2008 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2008 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Meredith Anne Green Kuhn entitled The Eye of Beauty: Creating a Place for Elite and Aging Elders and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Philosophy ____________________________________________________________________ Date: November 15, 2007 Jane Hill ____________________________________________________________________ Date: November 15, 2007 Ellen Basso ____________________________________________________________________ Date: November 15, 2007 Drexel Woodson Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. _____________________________________________ Date: November 15, 2007 Dissertation Director: Jane Hill _____________________________________________ Date: November 15, 2007 Dissertation Director: Ellen Basso 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: Meredith Anne Green Kuhn 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project took many years to complete and was possible only with the support and encouragement of many individuals. I must first thank the residents who lived in the Monet, the retirement and assisted living community where I conducted this research, for engaging so honestly with me on this topic. At the same time, I must thank the employees of the Integrated Retirement Corporation, from the President to the caregivers, who were also very candid in their remarks and open to sharing their observations with me. I would like to sincerely thank the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, but especially the members of my dissertation committee, Ellen Basso, Jane Hill, and Drexel Woodson for their invaluable encouragement and feedback throughout not only this dissertation process but my graduate career. I could not have completed this project without the support of many friends and associates. A special thanks to John Neuhaus and Lynne Hudson, who read and critiqued several drafts; to Jennifer Williams, Susan Fisher, and Jozette Stubbe, who provided consistent moral support; to Tina Delgado, Christine Baughman, and Diane Blair, who understood the importance of what I was trying to accomplish; and to Ray Roberts, who gave me what I needed the most – time to write. Lastly, I am most deeply indebted to the members of my immediate family who alternately pushed, prodded, and cheered me on as I moved through this project. Without my husband, Fletcher Kuhn, my mother, Joeine Green, and my brother, Howard Green, this dissertation would have remained just a lovely idea. 5 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of my father, Howard Wallace Green. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures…………………………………………………..……………..…… 8 List of Tables………………………………………………………………............. 9 Abstract…………………………………………………………….………………10 Introduction: Aging and the Nation…………………………………….…………..11 The Study Population and Industry…………………………….…………...12 Anthropology and Aging……………………………………………………23 A Different Other……………………………………………….….. ………26 Methods: Biography and Fieldwork…………………………….…. ………35 Complicating Binaries……………………………………………................41 A Community Snapshot: Cottonville and the Monet………………. ………47 Research Questions………………………………………………………… 50 Overview of Chapters…………………………………………………….... 52 Chapter One: Successful Aging……………………………………………………. 58 The Successful Aging Discourse…………………………………………....61 Performative/Aesthetic Framework……………………………………….. 68 Spatial/Geographic Framework……………………………………………. 72 The Celebrity Boomer Profile……………………………………… ……... 74 Successful Aging as a Disciplinary Power………………………………… 78 Conclusion: IRC and Successful Aging…………………………………… 81 Chapter Two: Literature Review…………………………………………………... 83 Anthropological Spaces……………………………………………………. 85 Spacing the Elderly: Sub-Divisions, Downtowns, and Retirement Communities…………………………………………... 90 Seductive Stereotypes: The Uncivilized Nursing Home…………………... 93 Assisted Living: Against the Trope of the Nursing Home………………… 99 Chapter Three: Our Mothers, Our Fathers, and the Monet………………………… 103 Our Mothers and Fathers……………………………………………………103 The Eye of Beauty: An Aesthetic Vision…………………………………...110 Arrival in Cottonville……………………………………………................. 118 The Plan for Beauty…………………………………………………………120 The Communicative Power of the Monet………………………………….. 125 Fixing Meaning – Form versus Function……………………………………134 Chapter Four: Dressing Up (in) A Marginal Space…………………………………144 An Elite Sense of Place…………………………………………………….. 145 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued The Eye of Beauty: A Service Framework………………………………….158 A Critical Eye……………………………………………………………….163 Kayla Woods and the Rembrandt…………………………………...............168 Hierarchical Observation: Into the Light……………………………………170 Normalizing Judgment: The Corrective Shopping Trip…………………….173 Examination…………………………………………………………………178 Chapter Five: The Moral Geography of Aging……………………………………..182 Industry Organization……………………………………………….............184 Separate but Equal: A Segregated Model…………………………………...190 Cultural Citizenship and the Integrated Model…………………………….. 211 Conclusion: Constructing the Elderly……………………………………………… 220 The Hegemony of Successful Aging………………………………………..226 The Eye of Beauty: Accommodation and Resistance……………………… 228 Avenues for Further Research………………………………………………232 References………………………………………………………………………….. 235 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Rembrandt in Gila City……………………………………………. 113 Figure 2: The Cezanne in Rillito Town……………………………………………113 Figure 3: The Monet in Cottonville………………………………………………. 113 Figure 4: Dining Room at the Cezanne……………………………………………114 Figure 5: Dining Room at the Monet……………………………………………...114 Figure 6: Dining Room at the Rembrandt…………………………………………114 Figure 7: The Living Room at the Rembrandt……………………………………. 115 Figure 8: “Trudy’s Tea Room” at the Rembrandt…………………………………115 Figure 9: Hallway at the Cezanne………………………………………………… 115 Figure 10: Architectural Diagram of the Monet…………………………………… 126 Figure 11: Façade of the Monet – East View……………………………………… 128 Figure 12: First Floor Portico of the Monet……………………………………….. 128 Figure 13: Façade of the Monet – West View……………………………………...129 Figure 14: Back Entrance of the Monet…………………………………………….129 Figure 15: The Monet’s Pool……………………………………………………….129 Figure 16: Interior Courtyard at the Monet…………………………………………129 Figure 17: Dining Room at the Monet……………………………………………...129 Figure 18: Second Floor Hallway at the Monet…………………………………….129 Figure 19: Second Floor Common Area at the Monet……………………………...130 Figure 20: Themed Lounge at the Monet…………………………………………...130 Figure 21: Central Staircase at the Monet…………………………………………..130 Figure 22: Themed Lounge at the Monet…………………………………………...130 Figure 23: Dining Room at the Monet……………………………………………..138 Figure 24: Buffet Line at the Monet……………………………………………….. 138 Figure 25: Master Bath “A” at the Monet………………………………………….. 142 Figure 26: Master Bath “B” at the Monet………………………………………….. 142 9 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Interviews per Informant Category………………………………….…...44 Table 2: Resident Population by Level of Care………………………………...….49 Table 3: Resident Population by Level of Assistance…………………………...…49 Table 4: Married Couples at the Monet…………………………………………....50 10 ABSTRACT In the last twenty years retirement and assisted living communities have become fixtures of the American aging landscape. The material and ideological organization of this industry not only indicates corporate preparation for the “graying of America” but represents the proliferating and changing representations of the elderly in our country. This study broadly aims to understand the moral geographies created through the industry’s integrated and segregated models of elder care as well as the ideological formation of good health as a symbol of ideal moral “citizenship” in retirement and assisted living communities. More specifically,