NEW AGEISM AND THE FAILURE MODELS - POLEMIC

Social gerontologists and social geriatricians have made considerable use of the term ageism as a counterpart to the more familiar racism and sexism. The general assumption underlying the application of this term is that ageist individuals and ageist societies or communities or organizations exist. Ageists, the assumption holds, express overt and covert dislike and discrimination regarding the elderly. This is, they avoid older persons on an individual level, they discriminate against older persons in terms of jobs, other forms of access to financial support, utilization of social institutions, and so forth. Further, the ageist individual derides the elderly through hostile humor, through accusations that the elderly are largely responsible for their own plight, and through complaints that they are consuming more than their share of some particular resource. They may also contend that older people deserve what they get, are in effect a drain on society, are functionally incapable of change or improvement (or, conversely, are capable of change and improvement and should be required to do so with their present resources), and do not contribute adequately to the society from which they are taking resources. Ageism involves stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, segregation, hostility. the list can go on and on. © 1979 Oxford University Press.