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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Three faces of ageism
— society, image and place | | Author(s) | Kevin E McHugh |
| Journal title | Ageing and Society, vol 23, part 2, March 2003 |
| Pages | pp 165-186 |
| Keywords | Ageing process ; Ageism ; Retirement areas ; Geography ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | This paper elucidates and champions a spatiality perspective in social gerontology, by arguing that relationships between older people and the spaces and places they inhabit illuminate deeply-ingrained societal attitudes and values. The trilogy of society, image and place is explored through an interpretive reading of images and scripts in "successful ageing" and "anti-ageing" created and promoted by the booming "retirement industry" in the United States. Six tropes (metaphoric usages) are revealed in an interpretation of prevalent images of "Sunbelt retirement land": geographic cornucopia, ageless selves, near perfection, the right stuff, down home living, and nomads of desire. This reading serves as a springboard in elaborating T R Cole's (1992) notion of bipolar ageism, as we vacillate between negative stereotypes of old age and positive elixirs, such as anti-ageing and agelessness, that are cloaked denials of decline, disease and death. The paper concludes with a series of troubling questions about the perpetuation and depth of ageism in society and culture. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030403202 A |
| Classmark | BG: B:TOB: RO: Y6M: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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