Does gravity always win? Ageing experiences and models of perfection from an art-based ethnography of body excellence

In a post-essentialist and feminist approach, aging is a gendered performance and the body is perceived in terms of individual responsibility. The self is projected and evaluated according to the body performativity and we are all expected to put in place plans of excellence, actively minimizing the consequences of the time. Based on the workshop series The Hacked Barbie, where participants where invited to reproduce their corporeality on a doll to deconstruct body-practices of the everyday life and models of perfections, this contribution aims to problematize the inequality for the access to resources perceived as necessary to an excellent aging. The creative workshop collected experimental ethnographic processes that merged oral expressions and practice-based interactions during the pandemic of 2021 in Italy and Portugal, collecting 58 voices over 6 editions. Using the metaphorical flash to reflect on strategies and values, we aims to present collected experiences showing what means to perform a “proper” body and how it is negotiated during aging, showing strategies, vulnerabilities and choices of women in daily life. Preliminary results showed the embodiment of Eurocentric and postcolonial hierarchies of excellence, and the beautification pressure in being always perceived as young, beauty, white, body-hair-less, healthy, smooth and tonic, were symbolically expressed by participants who discussed how they take care of their bodies and themselves, enhancing the self-perception and the social performativity of the body. If aging is a universal process, discriminants as race, economical power and social class highlight that it is not equal or homogeneous, despite the presentation of the democratic spot “because you are worth it”.