Skip to main content

Ageism: What Is It?


What is "Ageism"?  It's complicated ... 

 

I went to our public library to see what I might find about "ageism".  For the subject heading there were 8 books across the multi-city locations.  Only one was in our local library, Still Here by Ram Dass (which I happen to own, and highly recommend), so I expanded my search to keywords, and within our library found a book by Robert N. Butler.  The description in the catalog record indicated he claims to have coined the term, "ageism" (see note below).  So I went to the stacks and found his book, The Longevity Revolution in the 612.6 Dewey Decimal area, picked up Butler's book and a few others adjacent to it, and retreated to a quiet table to peruse them.  

As the LC Subject headings note, the subject is "complex" ↓  

LabelVocabularyConcept TypeSubdivision TypeIdentifier
1.AgeismLC Subject HeadingsTopicsh90001720
2.Ageism in advertisingLC Subject HeadingsTopicsh2008006394
3.Ageism--United StatesLC Subject HeadingsComplex Subjectsh2009114092

Many of the books shelved near Butler's focused on anti-aging, efforts to appear to be younger through cosmetics and clothing choices, hormonal treatments (pros and cons), and other ways to try to avoid aging or the appearance of aging.

In The Longevity Revolution, Butler reminded readers that simultaneously the percentage of elders is growing and people are living longer, and points out that our society would benefit more from honoring and encouraging the wisdom, knowledge, skills and continued contributions from elders than from pushing them aside as no longer useful.  

He examines the nature of ageism as an institutionalized prejudice, similar to racism, gender discrimination or anti-gay prejudice.  He writes:  "An ageist younger generation sees older people as different than itself; it subtly ceases to identify with its elders as human beings as men become geezers, old goats, gaffers, fogies, coots ... and old women are gophers and geese.  A crone, hag or withered old woman." 

 These excerpts from Butler's book look at ageism and some of his recommendations:



...


...




Transforming cultural sensitivity will include shifts in how elders are seen.  "It is time to change the language and imagery of old age in the media and to sensitive journalists and writers about the language of ageism."  (Butler)

In order to work towards this transformation, we who identify ourselves as elders must shift our own inner perceptions of ourselves and our peers.  It is not a small thing to change our thinking, to straighten up and walk tall (metaphorically if not always physically), to present ourselves to ourselves AND to the world as strong and beautiful in our own right, just as we each are today.


Note:  According to his book, Robert Butler's first use of the term in 1969 was both for a conference speech and for an article, "Ageism:  Another Form of Bigotry" in the Gerontologist Volume 9, pages 243-246.  (See: http://www.romolocapuano.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Butler_Age-ism.pdf )





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated before posting, generally within 24 hours.

Popular posts from this blog

The Shadow Self

  I'm exploring this concept at the request of Kathleen V., who is leading a Crone workshop in which I'm participating.  She asked whether I'd ever written about any aspect of my shadow self in my journaling over the years. I immediately thought of one experience I had in my early 20's.  I had just left a difficult relationship and had moved to a house with two friends near Bass Harbor, Maine.  The small house was rural, built above the rocky shore facing the harbor.  Behind it the forest rose up into the hills.   One winter night I was dropped off on the road.  As I trudged up the lonely driveway to the house through the snow I realized the house was empty.   I had not lived there long, and I had not been home alone before.  I kicked the snow from my boots and opened the kitchen porch door.  As is the case for many farm houses, the small enclosed back porch stored coats and boots and when the outer door was closed an inner door helped p...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
4 comments
Read more

Persephone’s Return: the Green Fuse

Spring:   When Demeter and Hecate Rescued Persephone  ... you know the story. Persephone, a lovely maiden, was abducted by Hades and taken to his kingdom underground.  In response her mother, Demeter (the Greek Goddess ruling Harvests and Fertility) used her torch to waste the Earth, her anger causing all crops to die.  In despair Hecate hid herself as an old woman and sat by a well, where Zeus (the God of Gods) found her and tried to convince her to let the crops grow again.  She refused, so in desperation Zeus ordered Hades to let Persephone return to her mother.   Hades had warned Persephone to not eat anything while in his realm, but after Zeus commanded her release Hades tempted her with pomegranate seeds. Persephone ate one.  Therefore she was only partially released: only allowed to return to the surface of the earth for a third of each year.  Demeter allowed the crops to grow again, but only during the times of the year when ...
2 comments
Read more