Ageism

Age Discrimination

Gretchen Heuring | ElderThink | 08.20.10

Ageism is a strange prejudice. It means the stereotyping of people because they are old. Many of us participate even though we might not be aware that we do. Yet, we all become old (hopefully!) and have this experience ourselves.

Some blame Elders for the effects of being old. They say we are weak or frail because we didn't "take care" of ourselves when we were younger. It is as though they think growing old is a disease that could have been prevented.

Think about it, when we say the words "old" or "aged" we immediately assume "inactive," "enfeebled," "tired," "decrepit," and many other terms. We rarely think "wise" or "knowledgeable" when we consider elderly people. Yet they raised families, managed businesses, taught students, and invented many of the things we use every day.

In the grocery store where I shop, there is a card rack at the end of an aisle. On it is a selection of cards, meant to be humorous, with old and wrinkled people doing normal things such as wearing a swimsuit at the beach. The amazing part is that people who buy those cards as jokes will, themselves, be old wrinkled people wearing swimsuits at the beach.

This video was prepared by Peter, an 83 year old widower living in the UK. The clips in this film have been extracted from a BBC film "Power to the People" with their permission.