Abstract
Individual responsibility for health is socio-culturally emphasized. This study used discourse analysis to examine 60 New Zealand adults’ (aged 55—70) uptake of health promotion discourse in talk about health and ageing. Many participants attempted to defy or manage an ageing body through a regime of exercise, food management and other practices. The subject position of being in control of one’s health counteracted anxieties about ageing; following strictures of health promotion provided a virtuous moral identity. However, there is a danger of feeling individually responsible for ill-health, or betrayed when health promotion’s promises contradict the experience of an ageing body.
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