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.

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