“If you are not already part of a group disadvantaged by prejudice, just wait a couple of decades––you will be.” The above is a direct quote from an article on ageism by Laura Robbins. So, how do we avoid ageism in ourselves and help to fight it? How do we change
A healthy year too, obviously, and as happy as we can make it. But what 2020 brought home for me was that being anti-ageist means supporting every movement for equal rights. It’s a big ask, but we cannot dismantle ageism without dismantling ableism, and racism, and sexism and all the rest, because
My new talk, “Still Kicking – Confronting Ageism and Ableism in the Pandemic’s Wake,” debuted earlier this week at n4a, the national conference of Area Agencies on Aging—to rave reviews, yay! Here’s a look at some of the ground it covers: Remember the early messaging about the virus? “Don’t worry,
Becoming an Old Person in Training allows us to choose purpose and intent over dread and denial and connects us empathically with our future selves, says author and activist Ashton Applewhite. This excerpt from my book ran on TED’s “Ideas” page under the title Rather than identifying as old, young or middle-aged, be
Media coverage of anything aging-related has long been characterized by alarmist hand-wringing, the most egregious example being the gray tsunami metaphor. Coverage of the pandemic is no exception, given that some three quarters of COVID19-related deaths are of people over age 65, many occurring in nursing homes where the virus has run largely unchecked.
1. You’re stuck inside and it’s a feelgood documentary. Crip Camp is about an unintentionally visionary “summer camp for the handicapped run by hippies,” as the film’s co-director (and former camper) Jim LeBrecht explains early on. A sound designer with spina bifida, Lebrecht shot much of the film’s early footage with a camera
The blurb that my friend and ally, Sister Imelda, sent to the U.S. Ursuline nuns at the request of one of their Sisters in elected leadership. __________ THIS CHAIR ROCKS: A MANIFESTO AGAINST AGEISM We’ve all been there: Shocked, unhappy at the growing expanse of gray hair — or maybe
Three years ago I had the honor of addressing the United Nations on the International Day of Older Persons, which is celebrated annually around the world on October 1. In my talk, which I called End Ageism – Or the Rest is Noise, I made a passionate case for confronting ageism
What affliction do Americans fear most? Alzheimer’s disease. I’m one of them, unless so many bones give out that I have to be carried around in a shovel. But facts comfort me. Abundant new data shows that our fears are way out of proportion to the threat—and that those fears themselves put
Marketing messages in the media would have us believe that unless we are young and fit into a well-defined description of beauty (i.e. age, shape, athletic ability), we have no value. But, we know through research, and by surveying hundreds of thousands of older adults in America, that we have
