“Ageism, and an older person’s perception of aging, may hold the keys to a longer life.” That’s the first sentence of “Why age bias has real world health effects,” just published by the Association of Health Care Journalists, which supports excellence…
Search Results for: ageism
My Own Ageism and Ableism
These days, I see my possible future self everywhere. Most of the time, it’s the possibilities I’m dreading that jump out at me first. At the gym, there are always some people moving very deliberately and with much more effort…
Ageism: A Public Health Issue
Smoking cigarettes causes cancer. Secondhand smoke does too. Most people read this and think, “Duh. Everybody knows that.” It wasn’t that long ago when people smoked cigarettes on airplanes. Do you remember when the people sitting at the table next…
Ageism’s Toll in the Age of COVID
An expert on aging and ageism explains the impact of age discriminationIn a powerful interview, the distinguished scholar and author Margaret Morganroth Gullette exposes ageism’s reach into the highest levels of government and its lethal consequences during the pandemic, She draws on research she has done for her work in progress,…
‘Age Against the Machine—Ending Ageism in the Workplace’
That’s the kickass-if-I-say-so-myself title of my new talk, which debuted earlier this month, in real life, at the annual conference of the Financial Planners Association. The catalyst was my pre-event call with the organizers. “There’s grousing from our older members,…
Ageism Affects Us, Both Physically and Mentally
Ageism affects how our minds and bodies function, and not in a good way. We’ve known that for a while, thanks in large part to the work of Yale’s Becca Levy, PhD, whose groundbreaking work, Breaking the Age Code: How…
COVID Spotlights the Ageism in Health Care
Death toll among older people shows urgent need for changesEarlier this year, the World Health Organization announced a global campaign to combat ageism—discrimination against older adults that is pervasive and harmful but often unrecognized.
Minister for Older Adults Has Seen How Pervasive Ageism Is
She’s also seen the courage it takes to push back against itLater life is a time of reassessment and reflection. What sense do we make of the lives we have lived?
The Geography of Ageism
A recent study analyzed data from all 50 states (plus DC) and found that, when it comes to ageism, New Jersey is the worst. I was astounded when I read that. I’ve lived in New Jersey for most of my…
The Pandemic Isn’t Making Ageism Worse. It’s Exposing It—and That’s a Good Thing
Media coverage of anything aging-related has long been characterized by alarmist hand-wringing. Coverage of the pandemic is no exception, given that some three-quarters of COVID-19-related deaths worldwide are of people over age 65, many occurring in nursing homes, where the…
There’s No Excuse for Ageism, Part 2
Another rationale for gerontophobia (fear of aging and aversion to old people) is that olders are closer to death, and, well, who wants to go there?
Ageism and Tragedy in a Time of Triage
Triage means exclusion from treatment. In parts of the United States, triage may become grievously necessary, as pandemic peaks overwhelm resources.
There’s No Excuse for Ageism, Part 1
When the last parent died in 2017, I visualized their canoes heading over an immense waterfall. My partner’s and my canoes fell next in line. Gulp. Yet this scenario sure beats the alternative: outliving the younger people we love. Is…
In a Pandemic, Ageism Can Be Lethal
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), older people and people with underlying health conditions are about twice as likely to “develop serious outcomes” from the COVID-19 coronavirus—get really sick and possibly die—as younger and otherwise healthier people. …
A Doctor Speaks Out about Ageism in Medicine
A frank discussion of the biases that undercut older people’s health careSociety gives short shrift to older age. This distinct phase of life doesn’t get the same attention that’s devoted to childhood.
We Can Do Something about Ageism—Here’s the Evidence
We’ve known for a while that ageism—negative beliefs and stereotypes about aging—makes us vulnerable to disease and decline, and also that the opposite is true. People with fact- rather than fear-based attitudes towards aging walk faster, heal quicker, live longer…
Rowing North Against Ageism, Sexism and Misogyny
Mary Pipher is a psychologist who specializes in women—adolescents in her first bestseller, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls (1994), and now those entering old age in Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing As We Age.
What Will It Take to End Ageism? Part 2
A consumer revolution requires a social revolution. We know that as time grows shorter, a sense of purpose becomes an ever-higher priority for olders. As Coughlin observes, “Culture helps determine what older people find meaningful. And that raises a question: can . . . new, socially permissible routes to meaning open up?”
What Will It Take to End Ageism? Part 1
Most Americans aren’t optimistic about getting older and think the source of the problem is aging itself. So do most policy wonks: they frame population aging as a set of choices about how to care for an avalanche of “frail…
Is Ageism Ever Funny?
How should I react when comedians on TV, or organizations I respect, make appallingly ageist jokes? I’m 83, so the joke’s on me. Should I object? I’ve been a fan of Saturday Night Live practically since the program first aired,…
Ending Ageism or How Not to Shoot Old People
If you’re not sure what ageism is, or you doubt that it does much harm, read this book.
Less Ageism = Less Dementia. It’s That Clear
What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer’s disease. I’m one of them, but facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat—and that those fears themselves put us at risk.
Bucking Ageism in Philanthropy
Five Organizations That Make Older People’s Lives EasierThere are a lot of problems in the United States. Take the fact that our country is aging. By 2035, Americans 65 and older will outnumber kids for the first time in our history…
The New Yorker’s Ageist Take on Ageism
I’m a lifelong New Yorker addict, so when I heard they were running a piece on ageism, I got excited. That was a mistake. Tad Friend’s article in the November 20th issue, “Why Ageism Never Gets Old,” is glib and…
The Workplace Needs #MeTooAgainstAgeism
The #MeToo movement is mainly about work situations, and so it should be. Being treated like a skirt—or a headless skirt, depending upon the level of vileness—by a male boss or peer can ruin a workplace…even a life.
Margaret Morganroth Gullette: Revolutionist against Ageism
A scholar takes on ageist violence in all its guisesAgeism did not end with the 20th century. But there were hopes. Feminism had brought changes for women, rights movements had brought changes for black people and disabled people, and the—well, there was no widespread, organized movement for older people.
Agewise: Fighting the New Ageism in America
Americans fear growing older but what we really should worry about is ageism—how entrenched, negative misconceptions about aging affect us from youth through our oldest years.
The Violence of Ageism
As the entire world now knows, Dr. David Dao is the passenger who was dragged off a United Airlines flight on April 9th (2017) by Chicago police, who broke his nose, gave him a concussion and smashed two of his teeth.
In the Fight against Bigotry, Where Does Ageism Fit In?
I wake these days remembering that something awful has happened. Reality assembles itself, and I feel worse. The multicultural, egalitarian, globalized society I hope to inhabit is under assault. Bigotry is ascendant. Racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance—pick your prejudice!—are sanctioned,…
Ageism
Action—Global and Local—against Ageism
October [2016] brought me two very different gigs—one on the world stage and one in a Brooklyn community center. The first was at the United Nations on October 6 to celebrate the 26th International Day of Older Persons. It was…
Six More Questions about My New Manifesto Against Ageism
Since the publication of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism (2016), I’ve been asked a lot of questions. Are you curious about why I’ve become an Old Person in Training?
Six Questions about My New Manifesto Against Ageism
Since the publication of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism (2016), I’ve been asked a lot of questions. Are you curious about why I find aging so damn interesting?
I’ll Have What She’s Having—Minus the Internalized Ageism
“There is also something profoundly liberating about aging,” Dominique Browning wrote in the New York Times.
Ageism – 1
How we think about getting older can drastically affect our emotional and physical health. Find out why.
Want Older People to Be Healthy? End Ageism
There’s a lot of disagreement around how to frame the last century’s unprecedented increase in human lifespan. Is it a crisis or an opportunity? Will a “grey tsunami” of incapacitated freeloaders sweep us off our feet, or will we tap…
Ageism – 2
Harmful stereotypes and discrimination are rampant in our society. Do you recognize ageism when you see or hear it?
Guess Who’s Confronting Ageism Now?
Ageism in Silicon Valley has been all over the news lately. “The Brutal Ageism of Tech,” a March 2014 feature story in the New Republic, noted that some male techies, still in their 20s, are contemplating Botox and hair transplants, while middle-aged engineers, a swelling cohort of “highly trained, objectively talented, surpassingly ambitious workers,” are being sidelined “for reasons no one can rationally explain.”
Why Ageism Matters
In 2007 I started interviewing people over 80 who were in the workforce. At the same time, I was reading and writing about longevity. To my surprise, the more I learned, the greater the discrepancy that emerged between my grim notion of late life and the lived reality.
Do We Simply Not Care about Older People?
Three out of four killed by COVID were older adults. Where’s the outrage?The COVID-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted
Tips for Long-Distance Caregivers - This is part 2 of a series about caregiving from a distance. Read part 1 here. Fern, 92, called her daughter in a panic. She couldn’t turn off her television because she couldn’t find the remote. Due to Fern’s hearing…
My Own Ageism and Ableism - These days, I see my possible future self everywhere. Most of the time, it’s the possibilities I’m dreading that jump out at me first. At the gym, there are always some people moving very deliberately and with much more effort…