This Chair Rocks! Ashton Applewhite’s Work

This Chair Rocks!

Continuing my ageism research, I found Ashton Applewhite's book, This Chair Rocks: A Manifest Against Ageism. Applewhite also maintains a blog and has given TED talks on the subject. (Links for those are at https://thischairrocks.com).

Applewhite covers the origins of the term ageism (Robert Butler), the reasons ageism is as important to combat as other culturally constructed "-isms", and goes on to consider economics, memory, health, sex and intimacy and the workplace. She doesn't flinch when it comes to examining the end of life and how it might be well navigated.

She points out that ageism is a form of self-hatred: "Like racism and sexism, ageism is not about how we look. It's about what people in power want our appearance to mean. Ageism occurs when the dominant group uses its power to oppress or exploit or silence or simply ignore people who are much younger or significantly older. We experience ageism any time someone assumes we're "too old" for something -- a task, a relationship, or a haircut -- instead of finding out who we are and what we're capable of. Or if someone assumes that we're 'too young;' ageism cuts both ways ... "

She writes:

The more time goes by, the more

damage clinging to youth does

to our sense of self

and our place in the world.

This is the place where I start. Although there are economic, social, political and other big-picture aspects to consider, right now I am working on personal identity as the place to begin to make a cultural shift. Only if I can truly embrace who I am NOW and relax about how I "appear" to the world will I be able to contribute to "rising above" the ageist messages embedded in our media, etc.

Comments

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes ...

Nikolaus Gyzis' painting: Grandma Dancing with Granddaughters, 1883. I'm reading Mary Pipher's recent book, _Women_Rowing_North_, in which she shares her ideas about being a woman as entering her elder years. In her second chapter, Pipher wrote about ageism directly. The line that has stayed with me most clearly is this: What women mean when they say "I'm not old," is "I won't accept the ideas that culture has about me." However, in the real world, I've been taking my grandchild to a weekly preschool music class where we delight in rhythms, songs, trying out instrument. At circle time I used to sit down on the floor along with many (but not all) of the other parents and grandparents and their kids. Those who chose to sit on chairs instead of on the floor had their reasons, but I liked to participate, even on days when, in order to stand up, I'd first have to get on my hands and knees then push up slowly. I liked hol...

The Treasures of Aging: Grandchildren

Treasures in my arms! When my only child, my daughter, was expecting her first child I was as focused on her as she was on the child she was carrying. I watched her move through her pregnancy with grace, her eager anticipation of the life as a mother she had chosen with love, and I rejoiced even as I watched over her carefully. I made suggestions about diet and such until I realized she was doing her own research and doing a very good job of it. So then I listened and agreed and supported her as she moves through the months. When the day of her baby's birth arrived I was near her in the hospital. My daughter and her husband had decided that no one but the nurses and doctor was to be with them in the delivery room for their labor and birth, so I was in the closest waiting room all day. A few times her husband came to get me, but only when she asked to see me, and in those times I held her hand, comforted her as a mother knows to do for her child...

The Seasons of a Woman: Harvest Queen

Harvest Queen The Harvest Queen represents the Autumn Equinox, also known as the celebration of Mabon. The light and the dark are in balance on the equinox, and as the days unfold the darkness begins to overcome the light. We celebrate our harvests, and then come the days of contemplation. Wisdom emerges from our depths into our conscious minds, and if we fully accept this upwelling of knowing from within, we enter a time of new strength, preparing ourselves as we become, day by day, one who understands grace. Celebrating the Autumn Equinox She who has matured through her seasons, from infancy and childhood to maiden, thence to mother, and as she ascends her Autumn Throne, her crops are fully grown. She has earned her crown. The left half of the painting represents the end of summer, and the fullness of nature, and that of a woman fully matured. The right half of the painting represents the beginning...

Rising Above Ageism

Search This Blog