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Are You Guilty of Internal Ageism?
How to cope when our society belittles growing old
One of the “-isms” that applies to every human being, regardless of gender, race or any other identifiable characteristic, is “ageism.” The term was introduced in 1969 by Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging.
Ageism is a form of discrimination that can actually cut across all age groups — for example, someone can be prejudiced against a child, an adolescent, a young adult, or an older person.
Still, as Dr. Butler recognized, the most common form of ageism in the world is perpetrated against older people. We see it every day, all around us, in every aspect of life.
Discrimination against older employees in the workplace takes the form of ridicule and unfair, even unlawful, terminations. Degrading attitudes toward older people in such areas as healthcare, retail and travel are the norm. Demeaning images of frail, fumbling old people are depicted in the media. Product and service marketers either ignore the older age group altogether or target them with insulting advertising.
The irony, of course, is that ultimately, ageism is self-directed, because everyone ages and gets old (if they are lucky enough). In fact, as we age, we may actually reinforce ageism by applying…
