ageism

• Ageism is a consequence of an ageing population. Ageism is discrimination due to your age.
• Old people being a problem is socially constructed as many people see it as a problem.

  This can be seen in unequal treatment in healthcare
• Age statuses are socially constructed, old age is constructed to be seen as being a problem and negative
• The Griffith Report reported seeing caring for the elderly as a problem due to meeting the cost of growing health and social care.
• Ageism is the negative stereotype of people on the basis of their age which often portrays old people as vulnerable, incompetent and a burden.
• In traditional societies, elderly people are respected and have a high status
• Townsend =

  • One reason for negative attitudes to the elderly is that old age has been socially constructed for a period of dependency
  • There is often a statutory requirement for people to retire which forces people to go into poverty
• In modern society, life is structured into fixed life course stages such as childhood, youth, adulthood and the older generation

  
  

  Age becomes an important role in creating an identity and role allocation
• Ageism is the result of a structured dependency as the old are excluded from paid work so they need to be dependent on their family or the state.
• Old people are often labelled as dependent and vulnerable
• Post modern sociologists argue the fixed stages of life courses have broken down as people are doing things differently than they did in the past.

  • Argue people now have more choice of lifestyle regardless of age
  • Consumption becomes key to our identities.
• Hunt =

  • We now define our lifestyles by what we consume so we can choose our lifestyle and identity, this means age no longer determines who we live.
  • There is a vast market of body maintenance to have new identities
• This means you can breakdown stereotypes as old people can do what young people do. They are able to use anti ageing products to rewrite their identity.
• Criticism of the post modern view is:

  • Pilcher says they underestimate the importance of social class and gender and how they affect old age
  • Ignore older people face discrimination that limits their choices.
• Social class may affect the experience of old age as they have higher savings to help later life in retirement and access to a younger identity
• Gender may affect the experience of old age as they have lower overall earnings and more breaks in work due to childcare which leads to a lower pension.