Essay On Ageism

We have normalized ageism in our society. According to Robert Butler in his 1969 article in The Gerontologist, “Ageism: Another Form of Bigotry,” ageism is “the systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender.” Many Americans experience prejudice and discrimination on the basis of their age, race, gender, and class. Due to various factors, certain members, older women are more likely to suffer from discrimination. This paper, will examine how perceptions of age discrimination are associate with health, body esteem and well-being among middle age women. It is essential to comprehend how preconceive notions of ageism led to discrimination and impacts the middle age women’s well-being.

Even though, aging is a natural occurrence, older people are often subject of negative stereotypes, and people dread growing old. Although, many people may define aging as growing older their multiple dimensions of growing old: physical, psychological, and social. In particular, “social expectancy theory posits that cultural values shape how individuals perceive and evaluate others and that this, in turn, influences how others evaluate themselves (Jackson, 2004, Sabik, 2010: 190)”. Thus, social aging attaches meaning to signs of aging; for instance, gray hair, winkles, longer reaction time, and even short term memory span. The social meaning of aging, thus creates negative stereotypes for visible signs of aging. Aging does not enable people over night we make these judgments, because we live in society that has constructed the meaning of aging in particular the negative stigmas and stereotypes. We will examine how socialization has reinforced ageism in society and how it impacts middle age