Aging and Ageism

Abstract

Ageism works as an ideology to promote as normal and uncontested the idea that older people are all the same – a homogeneous mass in which age is considered to be the only defining feature. Among the ageist processes that operate to inform the perceived social status of older people: welfarization, infantilization and dehumanization. A key part of ageist ideology is the assumption that old age is itself a form of disability, and so disability discourses have the potential to join ageist discourses in furthering the legitimate marginalization of older people. Despite the power of ageist ideology to have people believe that loss in old age is not worthy of attention, it has the potential to be very significant in older people's lives in a number of ways. These include the following: death-related losses, loss of role, loss of independence, loss of place, loss of dignity and loss of personhood.

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