Attitude Toward Elderly
Old Age
Attitudes towards Older People
Attitudes and treatment towards elderly people can be said to vary drastically across cultures. From Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the America's, Africa and Australia, the attitudes expressed by the community towards older people are very different when compared to one another. 1. In the 1960s, Robert Butler coined the phrase ageism, which he defined as: “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender. Old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills . . . . Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings . . . “. People of older age who were once respected and admired are now being dehumanized and being categorized as “undesirables”. People looked up to them as someone who have been around the block a couple more times and therefore they held a certain level of knowledge in their life banks that society thought of as useful. Society has robbed them of those life banks now and is holding them hostage in “homes”. Instead of grandchildren getting to enjoy stories of war, love, life, and experiences from their grandparents around the dinner table they are subject to visiting them in retirement homes. Those same people who took care of the new society and gave up so much to raise them are now being “punished” for aging and al the affects that come along with it. People use to hold doors open, do lawn work, fix things, anything they could to help and show respect for their elders who were incapable of doing such for themselves. Now-a-days those people have turned their cheeks on elders and just throw them in a retirement home to make it easier on themselves. However there is a town in New York that is reviving the respect owed to all
Attitudes towards Older People
Attitudes and treatment towards elderly people can be said to vary drastically across cultures. From Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the America's, Africa and Australia, the attitudes expressed by the community towards older people are very different when compared to one another. 1. In the 1960s, Robert Butler coined the phrase ageism, which he defined as: “A process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender. Old people are categorized as senile, rigid in thought and manner, old-fashioned in morality and skills . . . . Ageism allows the younger generations to see older people as different from themselves; thus they subtly cease to identify with their elders as human beings . . . “. People of older age who were once respected and admired are now being dehumanized and being categorized as “undesirables”. People looked up to them as someone who have been around the block a couple more times and therefore they held a certain level of knowledge in their life banks that society thought of as useful. Society has robbed them of those life banks now and is holding them hostage in “homes”. Instead of grandchildren getting to enjoy stories of war, love, life, and experiences from their grandparents around the dinner table they are subject to visiting them in retirement homes. Those same people who took care of the new society and gave up so much to raise them are now being “punished” for aging and al the affects that come along with it. People use to hold doors open, do lawn work, fix things, anything they could to help and show respect for their elders who were incapable of doing such for themselves. Now-a-days those people have turned their cheeks on elders and just throw them in a retirement home to make it easier on themselves. However there is a town in New York that is reviving the respect owed to all
Links: “Sonnet 127: In the Old Age Black Was Not Counted Fair - Poem by William Shakespeare." Famous Poets and Poems. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . "Why Has the Elderly Lost Society 's Respect?" HubPages. Web. 27 Apr. 2012. . 1. 1980 almost unheard of 2 3. 2003 Elder Justice Act put to work IV