Ageism in the Media. Who’s Having a
“Senior’s Moment?”[i]
As
I age, and begin to experience later life aging, I continue to seek
understanding of the various manifestations of ageism. There are several
variations. Here is one: “A
temporary mental lapse (humorously) attributed to the gradual loss of ones
mental facilities as one grows older.” The article I am citing has a wider
definition.
“Although senior’s moments are frequently defined as brief memory lapses, the
phrase also refers to severe cognitive impairment and functional
incompetence.” The authors express
the term senior moment… as an account or an expressed attribution of
unanticipated or unacceptable behavior.”
When
I started preparation for this post I came upon a web site that sells “senior moment”
tea shirts. Hum………… Many people in
North America appear to have negative attitudes toward older adults and while
there are some positive stereotypes most are negative. The existence of these stereotypes is
one of the major reasons most universities have classes not only about adult
development but aging itself.
The
article, cited below, found 136 newspaper articles (between the years 1997 and
2000) using the term senior’s moment.
A careful search of the articles came up with the following information:
· “Minor memory examples equated senior moments with an ‘ity
bitty lapse’ or the ‘tip of the tongue feeling’ or simply a ‘moment of
forgetfulness.’
· “Yet other articles use the term to
address more serious cognitive impairments such as an alternative to
Alzheimer’s Moments, a senior who has Alzheimer’s, mental
instability, or colossal memory or attention lapse.
There is much more information in the article. But to end this blog post
I must say that ageism is an age related stereotype that is so deeply buried in
society we often don’t even know when it’s happening and “As a result, we do
not question the use of phrases such as senior moment as accounts for
problematic articles.”
One
of the things discussed is how “senior’s moment” is used either as a self
reference or a projection onto others.
Let me know what you have experienced or think about this.
[i]
Bonnesen, J.L. & Burgess, E. O. (2004) Senior
moments: The acceptability of an
ageist phrase. Journal of Aging
Studies, 18, 123-142 For further information
go to the following email addressjoujls@langate.gsu.edu
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