Ageism

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=AGEISM=

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Ageism is a set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to justify age-based prejudice and discrimination. Although age can be an advantage or disadvantage for any group, as the median age of the United States population grows older, ageism affects more and more people. The functionalist's theory of ageism is that elderly people in a given society are treated to the role the aged play in that society. In some societies the elderly are treated with the uttermost respect while in other societies it is the complete opposite. While the conflict theory of ageism states that elderly people compete with other age groups for economic resouces, power, and prestige. Symbolic interactionism also states that children learn negative images of older people just as they learn aspects of other cultures through socialization. Although elderly people spend proportionally more on health care and housing than younger people, the government assumes that older people require less money to live which explains the poverty rates increasing from 9.8 percent to 15 percent. Elderly people are also considered one of the minority groups because they are discriminated against based on their age just as much as other minority groups. Although the elderly are financially better off than they were four decades ago, large segements of americans over sixty-five years old are living in poverty or near pverty. This rate is even higher for the elderly of ethnic or racial minorities and for elderly women.===== [] [] []

The difference between ageism and other disciminatory groups is that it is not static. Compared to race or gender, your age changes which defines whether ageism may or may not apply to you at that specific time period. A lot of elderly stereotypes consist of the elderly being senile or forgetful and there are even stereotypes of younger people that consist of the adolescent being immature and naive.



=Pros and cons of Ageism= =Pros:=

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=Ageism Article= []

-This article explains two different advertisements, the first one being an advertisement for a calcium dietary supplement, recently seen in numerous national magazines, that depicts a woman's silhouette frame by frame as she moves rightward across a page. She is apparently aging before our eyes, growing progressively older and more stooped as she gradually gets osteoporosis. By the last frame she needs the support of a cane. and the other advertisment is directed toward the elderly over the age of 50 with an elderly woman leaning out of a car window holding a dark liquid. the caption reads "Prune power to go" which is the product they are selling and associating with a failing digestive system. both of these advertisemtns are posting a negative picture about aging.

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