Female aging in Eastern European advertising: semiosis, representation, reinterpretation

Abstract Female aging is a unique cultural phenomenon intertwining universal biological mechanisms, the phenomenological experience of bodily transformation, and semiosis regarding age experience. Throughout their lives, women undergo significant changes in physicality, wherein aging emerges as a natural progression rather than a decline. In numerous traditional cultures, the transformations associated with female corporeality often remain obscured, and their visibility is frequently suppressed due to prevailing taboos surrounding the demonstration of aging. Consequently, the process of aging is traditionally mediated by overt cultural indicators that are intrinsically linked to social attributes such as age, marital status, and engagement in communal practices. Conversely, modern culture is beginning to challenge and reassess the taboos associated with aging, which, in certain respects, renders the phenomenon of female aging itself a subject of taboo. The digital era has dismantled the rigid boundaries of physicality, thereby augmenting the social engagement irrespective of age, and urging a re-evaluation of both the parameters of aging and the conceptualization of aging itself. This leads us to a pivotal inquiry about resemiotization of female aging nowadays and in future. In what ways do specific contemporary cultural representations transcend the taboos established by traditional societies? This research aims to explore the cultural manifestations of aging within Eastern European cultural context, particularly through the lens of advertising, to better understand these evolving narratives.