WHAT BODY IS THIS? INTERSECTIONAL STUDY ON THE BODILY EXPERIENCE OF BLACK ELDERLY WOMEN

Aging, race, and gender are historical, social, cultural, and psychological markers anchored in biological aspects. The body, understood as an image created through language and shaped by the intersectionality of these multiple dimensions, is central to this study. The objective is to analyze the experiences, desires, and cultural transmission related to the embodiment of elderly women who identify as Black. A qualitative, research-intervention method was employed with six participants. They contributed through individual in-depth interviews, followed by four group workshops. The collected data were examined using French Discourse Analysis. The narratives revealed experiences of violence and oppression based on class, gender, race, and age, alongside a silencing or masking of Black racial identity within their discourses. A history of abuse by men against their families, extreme poverty, the appropriation of their bodies, and even enslavement experienced by one participant emerged from the accounts. Despite these hardships, the participants affirmed that in their later years, they experienced a somewhat improved reality, attributed to retirement income, the love of their children and grandchildren, and greater freedom to be and act as they wished.