About this product: When they got together in the late 1970s, Barbara Macdonald, a 60-something lesbian, and her lover, Cynthia Rich, who is 20 years younger, learned that old women and young women are treated very differently, even within the women's movement. In response to this inequity, Macdonald wrote essays and open letters to feminist and social service organizations comparing ageism to racism. Her autobiographical essays describe an amazing lesbian childhood lived before the publication of The Well of Loneliness, a college career threatened by the revelation of a love affair with a woman, and frustration with young women's patronizing older women. Rich's essays examine how words and visual images in popular and feminist texts contribute to demonizing and demeaning older women.
About this product: Along with race and gender, people commonly use age to categorize—and form stereotypes about—others. Of the three categories, age is the only one in which the members of the in-group (the young) will eventually join the out-group (the old). Although ageism is found cross-culturally, it is especially prevalent in the United States, where most people regard growing older with depression, fear, and anxiety. Older people in the United States are stigmatized and marginalized, with often devastating consequences.
Although researchers have paid a great deal of attention to racism and sexism, there has been a dearth of research on ageism. A major reason for this neglect is that age prejudice is still considered socially acceptable. As baby boomers approach retirement age, however, there has been increased academic and popular interest in aging. This volume presents the current thinking on age stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination by researchers in gerontology, psychology, sociology, and communication. The book presents theoretical and empirical findings on the origins and effects of ageism, as well as suggestions on how to reduce ageism for the approaching "graying of America."
About this product: Illustrating the wide range of emotions at work in younger/older gay male relationships - from fear and loathing to love and happiness. Acclaimed author Tim Bergling examines the "two tribe" mentality about age that divides the gay male community into "us" and "them". He explores the gay experience through young, middle-aged and elderly viewpoints, including relationships, dating younger guys, dating older guys, the internet, sex, drugs, alcohol, HIV/AIDS, fitness, plastic surgery, retirement, harassment and discrimination. In their own words, hundreds of men discuss what it's like to be 16, 28, 40 or 70, examining the myths and realities about growing old gay.
About this product: In this updated edition, Palmore provides a comprehensive review for many different forms of ageism including the interest notion of positive ageism, which projects onto the elderly as a group traditional virtues like wisdom. He discusses both individual and social influences on attitudes towards the aged; analyzes institutional patterns of ageism; and explores ways to reduce the impact of ageism on the elderly. This book is a valuable resource and text for students and professional interested in the sociology of aging in our society.
About this product: Here is a unique text that examines the lives of middle-aged and old women. Women, Aging and Ageism, in response to the lack of literature that focuses on aging women, presents timely and definitive research that illustrates the implications of ageism and sexism. This landmark volume challenges powerful myths and dangerous stereotypes and identifies the damaging restrictions that society forces upon aging women. In extending feminist research to middle and old age, the chapters taken together comprise a critique of the conditions of the last third of women?s lives. The authors use analytical tools and methodologies developed and modified by feminists to explore questions previously unasked. They focus on issues of deep concern to women at midlife and beyond, including the politics of reproduction, sexuality, social isolation, violence against women, equal opportunity, and the feminization of poverty.Women, Aging and Ageism is available for classroom adoption. Ideal for studentsand helping professionals working with middle-aged and old women and their families, this book provides models of effective interventions grounded in field research and clinical practice. For all readers concerned about middle-aged and old women and the quality of their lives, Women, Aging and Ageism is a rich resource filled with ideas and information and an affirmative new volume about the limitless possibilities of women?s achievement in midlife and old age.
For baby boomers, senior citizens, gerontologists, and students of aging and the justice system, Howard Eglit's trenchant discussion of the intersection of aging Americans with the U.S. legal system illuminates the consequences of a pervasive bias in contemporary society.
America's ballooning older population is well documented. Couple this demographic tidal wave with the legal system, Eglit says, and the inescapable conclusion follows that the matrix of laws, regulations, judicial rulings, and governmental policy issues will affect more and more older people. Were age an innocuous factor in society, this proposition would merit little note. But, he says, "The fact is that age matters. And often negatively so."
It matters in the ways that young jurors assess the credibility of older litigants and witnesses. It matters for fashioning the attitudes that older jurors bring into the jury room. It matters for attorneys who deal with older clients and for judges, lawyers, and jurors who must respond to older lawyers. Embedded in American culture, age bias generally works to the detriment of older men and women, and this is dramatically true for individuals caught up in the legal system.
Elders on Trial examines the role that age plays in the legal process; more than that, it offers solutions and guides for mitigating the myriad negative aspects of that role. With its concern for human interactions and responses, rather than matters of infrastructure or formal legislative enterprise, the book offers a timely consideration of an urgent challenge faced by American society.
About this product: Baba Copper is furious, and rightfully so, at the treatment society gives older women. They're seen as evil (as in mothers-in-law) or as useful servants (doting grandmothers), she claims. Older women are disempowered and she asks who benefits from this displacement of power.
"Ageism, not aging, oppresses us," Copper writes. "We are oppressed by other women and we oppress ourselves." Copper accuses the women's movement as well as professionals who provide services for the elderly. She says the effect of making decisions for them and "servicing" their needs renders old people powerless. Ageism can be defeated only by naming it, resisting it and redefining our understanding of it. Growing old must become accepted and celebrated instead of feared and rejected.
About this product: This digital document is an article from Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, published by Western Michigan University, School of Social Work on June 1, 2003. The length of the article is 844 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details Title: Todd Nelson (Ed). Ageism: Stereotyping and Prejudice Against Older Persons.(Book Review) (book review) Author: Nancy R. Hooyman Publication:Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (Refereed) Date: June 1, 2003 Publisher: Western Michigan University, School of Social Work Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Page: 185(3)
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