Today I started reading up on ageism and collecting the material.
First, when I read our textbook, could not really figure out what ageism was. The -ism part is really confusing, I guess, I did not have an clear interpretation of the word. In my mind, ageism was a bias attitude expressed by society towards elderly with no actions that really hurt the aging population. Good example would be: waitress being unhappy by elderly couple being assigned to her station, because she knows that they will order a special, plus will share it and tip small. Another example would be: assuming that certain rides in Six Flags would not be appropriate for elderly, or instructor being really upset about an old person signing up for hiking adventure.
After educating myself on the issue, I discovered that ageism runs very deep in fabric of our society with not just attitudes, but actual actions. Health care ageism is obvious as well as media one with working place discrimination to go with it. Does any one think it is a problem? Does anyone think that it should be addressed by the government? Did anyone think about ageism the same way I did?
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Ageism seems to exist as an inner conflict as well as the preconceived notion someone has about a person that falls in an age group. The first things that comes to mind about stereotyopes based on age, for instance is: middle aged men buy corvettes to compensate for their receding hairlines, college aged girls don’t know what they want in life, or that retirees are all conservative and close minded. It’s just some generalizations, but they they don’t actually pertain to everyone. There are certain exceptions and obviously everyone is different. I think the example that you gave about ageism is very similar to the self fulfilling prophesy. If you convince yourself that you are old, falling apart, or losing your memory you will unconsciously act the part. Similary, if you convince yourself that you have become wise with age you will probably eagerly provide guidance to others based on your life experience. I think one set of words is self destructing and the other is more ego boosting. It’s whatever we convince ourselves and our perceptions of others. Ageism is probably unjust and incorrect, but it exists.
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