This discourse analytic study shows how 10 older women, who exercise regularly or attend the University of the Third Age, adjust to the ageing body in their `everyday talk' through taking a dualist position. The part of the body which is discursively constructed as ageing becomes objectified through appealing to a wider cultural discourse of ageing as biological decline. This dualist position is embedded within a wider cultural discourse of personal agency. The individual's control of the ageing body is emphasized, the ability to monitor and manage `ageing body parts' through exerting the `active mind' and the `busy body' in activities, or simply focusing on `looking good'.
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