S tre e t R o o ts •
Jan . 2 7 -F e b . 2, 2 0 1 7
Commentary
P a g e 11
A toolkit for pushing back against ageism
BY MIKE WOLD
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
This Chair Rocks:
A Manifesto
against Ageism,
by Ashton
Applewhite
P ■ ^ h e oldest baby boomers turned 71 in
2016. Since boomers have a
-L reputation for being involved with
social movements, it’s .not at all surprising,
as they hit retirem ent age, th at they’ve
rediscovered a form of oppression, ageism,
that was first named when they were in
their 20s, What’s surprising, actually, is
that it’s taken this long for the fight to be
revived. Perhaps that’s because the
quintessential boomer subculture was the
youth subculture with its explicit revolt
against “olders,” as Ashton Applewhite
calls them.
Ageism, in case you don’t get it, is
institutional and personal discrimination
against people solely on the basis of their
age. But, you may protest, isn’t it logical
that olders are treated differently? After
all, they’re forgetful, cognitively and
physically less able, short-timers as far as
employment, have less energy, .are slower
to learn new things, etc. But, like
corresponding statem ents about women
and disabled people, these stereotypes
don’t apply to all or even most older
people, and, in many cases, even if these
characteristics exist in particular olders,
they are often outweighed by other factors.
Applewhite, who says, “I have ho
problem saying I’m 63,” starts by
puncturing a few myths. For example, -
“only 4 percen t of A m ericans over 65 live
in nursing homes.” Nearly 90 percent “can
think just fine.” Retirement homes are
“hotbeds of lust and romance, as evidenced
by skyrocketing STD rates,” And “older
people enjoy better mental health than the
young or middle-aged.”
As far as employment, Applewhite isn’t
arguing that older people should work at
jobs they’re not capable of doing. She s
arguing for flexibility and reasonable
accommodation for older people, who have
as much right to work as any other adult.
Whatever someone’s age, they should have
the right to start a new career or further
their education, without being held back
because they might die in 20 years instead
of 40 or 60. As people age - which
Applewhite points out is the equivalent of
saying “as people live,” since living means
aging - it becomes harder to make
generalizations about their capabilities —
90-year-olds vary much more in their
abilities than 20- or 40-year-olds.
Applewhite takes aim at the youth-
biased stereotypes of physical beauty and
sexual attractiveness that are a staple in
our culture, to the extent that it’s a
compliment to tell someone they look
younger than they are. She suggests that
when told “you look great for your age” by
someone younger, a good response is “you
look great for your age, too!”
As far as sex, “we don’t ask when people,
age out of singing or eating ice cream; why
would we stop making love?” Intimacy, she
says, is a right at all ages, and she quotes
Margaret Gullette: “Cultures truly
interested in pleasure don’t romanticize
inexperience;” Sex may be different and
more focused on process than outcome,
but that actually is a recipe for greater
pleasure. Applewhite does warn that what
people do as they age is their choice:
whether to be sexual, w hether to*work,
whether to live independently or seek help.
The important thing is that it’s really a
choice, based on an older’» realistic
assessment of desires and capacities.
Appelwhite argues that cognitive decline
is stigmatized much more than is
warranted. Forgetfulness can happen at
any age, but if you’re over 65, it’s
attributed to age. Slow processing of
information may be less due to cognitive
or at risk of
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problems than to the fact that an older
brain has many more connections between
bits of information to draw on. At the same
time, this means that an older brain can
make more connections between disparate
things. Some cultures have interpreted
that as Wisdom.
Applewhite’s points strike home. But
one weakness of Applewhite’s “manifesto”
is that it’s almost entirely oriented to
personal interactions and personal change.
It’s as much a self-help book as a
manifesto, with advice and discussion of
end-of-life issues and ways to maintain
cognitive and physical health — all useful
advice> but off the main topic.
Even though several of the chapters
have sections about action against ageism
(each titled “Push Back”), the suggested
actions are all on the individual level.
Applewhite cites Maggie Kuhn, founder of
the Gray Panthers in the 1960s, as an
inspiration, but nowhere does she
encourage actual organizing around issues
of ageism, and there’s no list of activist
organizations to get in touch with. And, in
spite of the fact that union contracts
typically use seniority to protect older
workers from layoffs and dismissal, she
nowhere mentions unions as one avenue to
take in the fight against ageism.
Written -as a personal manifesto, the ï
book is very much from the v iew p o in t^
Applewhite’s position in society — a rriiddle-
class white woman — in spite of her clear
awareness of the broader social context. As
such, it’s a start toward addressing an
issue that has had too little attention for
the past couple of decades; we’ve got a
long way to go.
Courtesy of Real Change News, Seattle,
Wash.