Life has full of ironies. One of these is the state where everyone ultimately goes through, which is what getting old is all about. It is ironic because many of those who perpetuate the notion and perception of ageism are themselves the ones passing through along the same tunnel: that of getting old.
It is a stage of life where one feels everything is fading around him/her including his/her very own life.The issue on ageism and the plight of being an elderly in America has brought some advocates to the forefront to expose the way the elderly are treated. There is a sort of an inevitability that seemed to perpetuate with regards to the way society looks at the people in their aging years, and this includes many of the disadvantages of getting old and getting frail.This paper attempts to present brief observations and descriptions of the prevalence and effects of what the elderly people go through just because society has a fixed perception of who and what they are. It employs the findings from studies done by past and current researches on the subject.
Discussion1. Definition of AgeismAgeism refers “to the American devaluation of the aged and the aging process” (Hooyman and Kiyak, 578 cited in Turcotte, 2003:pp.284-298).It is perpetuated not only by people who lack true in-depth understanding of the elderly or the people in this stage of development, but ageism is also unwittingly kept alive by some individuals coming from the ranks of those in their senior years (Butler et al, 2005).
In a gist, experts say that there are three types of ageism and these are personal ageism, intentional ageism, and non-intentional ageism. Primarily, the fear of death and the attached traits leading to it are especially magnified when a person enters the aging or sunset years.This is best exemplified by the common terminologies acceptably attributed to the old. This labeling ranges from the benign (“sweet old lady, ancient, little old lady, over the hill,” etc.) to the more insulting, rude and offensive name calling (“blubbering idiot, geek, greedy geezer, old fart, hag, and one foot in the grave,” among others) that had rooted already in American society.What is more disheartening are the terminologies invented and propagated by those in the medical professions (“fossil, crock, GOMER for get out of my emergency room, GORK for God Only Really Knows, and SPOS for semi-human or subhuman piece of shit”).The questions that any person may entertain include as to why the treatment, and why the name-calling? The following elaboration on the three types of ageism helps to illustrate the reasons for such treatment (Butler et al, 2005).
