The Effect of Culture on Aging

The Effect of Culture on Aging and the Rising of

Ageism [1]

First “It is a combination of population, social and cultural change that provide the main framework by which we approach and understand aging.”

It is then predicted that ‘’… it seems probable that ageing will be expressed in increasingly unstable and contested practices and contradictory texts for well into the 21^st century.”  Next they state that: “by culture we are referring to various and complex systems of meaning that constitute everyday life”

“Old age lies sullen and unchanging – represented as the end of social life: a point in life after which future choices are irrelevant.”

Now :

     “ Several writers have argued that widespread negative attitudes toward old age evident in contemporary society lead to the internalization of these values by older people, reducing  expectations, leading to poorer physical and mental performance, which are then treated as ‘objective’ evidence of age related decline.
This can lead to internalized ageism.  This makes me wonder if this is also a process in Sexism and Racism

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[1]  The source of this material is the book Cultures and Aging constructed by Christopher Gilleard and Paul Hoggs, ISBN 0 -582-35641-5 Published in Great Britain in 2000