Labeling Theory And Stereotypes By Sociologist Emile Durkheim

Labeling theory holds its basis from suicide, a book written by sociologist Emile Durkheim. He postulated that crime is not much a violation of the penal code because it is an act that outrages the society. It is from this book of Durkheim, suicide, that other scholars coined the term labeling theory as a view that the old age is a form of deviant condition or behavior, which is labeled by people as such. This makes older people victims of stereotypes and perceives themselves in a negative manner. A state called false impression is created by people that the older generation is a homogeneous group. This homogeneous group is clustered together to include some behaviors that create a stereotype in aging (Durkheim, 1982). Media and society in general work hand in hand, in propagating ageism.

The Elderly Stereotypes

Labeling theory is a perspective of how the behaviors and self identity of a person are influenced and determined by the words used to classify or describe them. It is linked with the notion of prophecy, stereotyping, and self fulfilling. Labeling perspectives hold that, any deviant behavior, notably not inherent to a particular action, but focuses on the tendency of the majority of individuals who negatively label the minority, or they may be considered from standard cultural norms as deviants. Herbert Mead, an American Pragmatism, argued that the self is socially made or constructed, and reconstructed by interactions within the community by individuals. The theory views that people get labels from the way others see and view their behaviors or tendencies. Every individual is aware of the way they are seen and judged by others, simply because she or he has attempted a lot of functions and roles in social interactions, an...

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...a minor section of the society to ruin the good relations and the respect that has continuously existed among the society members and families in particular. As many consider ageism as a man made disease, it can be healed by the same man through propagation of media and society to consider old as gold and uncommon source of knowledge that is highly useful in the society. Sociologist should come up with theories on how to end this prejudice, rather than postulating theories that propagate ageism and age prejudice, as well as stereotypes. Ageism should be treated just like any other form of prejudice, such as ethnicity, racism and others, as a means to eliminate it. Lastly, it should be understood that whatever you do to an older person, the same will be done in your older age, although this time it will not be in the same measure you did, but a top up will be added.