Ageism: Looking across the Margin in the New Millennium

Abstract

Stereotypes out of synch with the aging of the population. Those familiar signs of aging, wrinkles, gray hair, hearing aids, or more consequential changes, fuel a kind of pejorative imagery or stigmatization that has been labeled ageism (Butler, 1969). Age has always differentiated people, and there is no denying that real aging occurs or that changes can be problematic, but all too frequently these changes are perceived as either pathological or depreciatory. As many have pointed out, in large measure we are known to others through our bodies, which serve as a nexus within which identities are formulated. Whether dismissive or absolving, ageism intervenes in assessments of individual capacity. What is called benign or compassionate ageism, sometimes labeled the poor dear syndrome, is no less dehumanizing than its negative counterpart- either way people are viewed through a stereotypic lens, subverting personal characteristics to the point of invisibility (Gordon and Longino, 2000; Holstein and Minkler, 2003). Of course the same is true of virtually all typological images: for good or ill they obscure particulars. The way we use language, the way we characterize things, even if intended only as shorthand, evokes powerful connotations, and in all likelihood perceptions will follow suit. It would be surprising if all ageism resulted from displaced anxieties or attitudinal abjection of individuals. If it did, we could deal with this gerontophobia, this age bias, and have a better sense of where intervention might be effective, whether completely successful or not. It is true that many individuals hold many misapprehensions and muddled views about what the term old means, but without reinforcement those views would likely be short lived. Some claim that such views stem from an innate fear of mortality, but at best that is but a portion of the picture (Levy, 2001; Nelson, 2002). As I have noted elsewhere, one of the paradoxes of our era is that our very successes and the shared values driving our cultural practices have set older people apart from their younger counterparts. Live long and might well be an aphorism suitable for describing the situation of older people in our society. It is one thing to speak of respect and support when numbers are small and surpluses plentiful. It is quite another with burgeoning growth in the number of people surviving into old age when those espousals are being roundly challenged, even strained. Judging from the media mantra, the sacred cows of generations past are being cast as greedy overgrazers today. The question of ageism is deserving of attention because it is woven into the woof of our social fabric. How is it that stereotypes and misapprehensions proliferate and are sustained? In the case of ageism, old age is cast as a territory apart, a country of the old, so to speak-inhabited by a bygone people. Part of the tendency to see decline, dependency, and disability as part and parcel of the aging process is an unintended consequence of otherwise well-intentioned interventions. We have made old age what it is by virtue of our normative views, by the analytic framework scholars use, and by virtue of some of the ameliorative attention focused in public policy. Without belaboring the point, social policies formulated from the 19305 onward to address abiding issues facing significant numbers of people also create boundaries and borders that impart emblematic credence to whatever commonalities or differences are perceived by those on one or the other side of the margin (Binstock, 2005; Hendricks, 2004; Johnson and Michaelsen, 1997; Wilson, 2001). The effect is that cleavages endemic to eligibility requirements also produce opportunity or constraint, access or denial. Standing on one or another side of an entitlement implies access to resources or roles and results in imputed characteristics of those eligible for protections and benefits. As these comments pass in review, it is essential to bear in mind that the social identity of those subjected to ageism suffer real consequences for personal well-being. …

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