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7/29/2018 0 Comments Imagine This..... Admittedly, growing old does have some inherent vulnerabilities: the loss of mobility, visibility and independence….These transitions are natural and inevitable. But we live in a culture that has yet to develop the language and tools to help us deal with them, as a result, these transitions all too often are characterized by shame and loss of self-esteem. (Applewhite ibid.) I have mentioned previously that a request for a sitting is usually met with surprise. If questioned about this reaction, the response often echoes the research marking 2 characteristics of marginalized population: self-loathing and passivity. I feel we need to re-focus our sense of human beauty to increase the depth of field of our lense and broaden our vision to include the wondrous organic transitions of human physicality. Yes our skin will become thinner and more fragile but envision the ethereal nature and visual beauty of that delicacy. Yes, we will get more and more wrinkles and things will give way to relentless gravity but consider the lines!!!!! Sinuous in their journey with tantalizing destinations; not the predictable ones of youth. Imagine this; we will become increasingly unique as we age. Isn’t that part of the whole concept of consumer value? We will be exponentially special!! 
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7/15/2018 0 Comments Gerontophobia....who me?!Gerontophobia (fear of ageing and dislike) Propelled by postwar leisure and prosperity, the explosion of consumer culture, and research into a stage of life newly dubbed “adolescence”, youth culture emerged as a distinct twentieth-century phenomenon. As this “cult of youth” grew, gerontophobia gained traction. (from This Chair Rocks). Theodore Roszak ( Making of an Elder Culture; 2009) also identified these events contributing to what has led us to where we are in our ageing mindset. There are many common threads that create the fibre of all ‘isms’ and therefore lessons to be learned hopefully. I keep returning to my experiences with older adults and their sense of self. I hear and perceive negative and sometimes disdainful comments and reactions about how they look and feel. I have been compelled to try and understand the origins of these deep-rooted which are quite contrary to beauty I see….  7/7/2018 0 Comments Ageist shadowsI am reading “This Chair Rocks: a manifesto against ageism” by Ashton Applewhite She was just the keynote speaker at an Ageing conference in Toronto that I was unfortunately unable to attend. I will be sharing the points she makes that resonate with me for a series of my next blog comments as for me, she has hit the proverbial nail!!! Negative messages about ageing cast a shadow across the entire life course, stunting our prospects, economy and civic life. She says that unless social oppression (in this case ageism) is ‘called out’, we can’t see it as oppression. Perpetuating it doesn’t require conscious prejudice or deliberate discrimination. This lesser life is “just the way it is”, and the way it probably always will be. For me, negative visual images play a significant role in maintaining our society’s resistance to getting old. We continue to compare our looks to how we used to appear. Just as our life evolves and becomes richer in so many ways, so too our looks…. Can we look in the mirror and see beyond the imposed shadows that obscure the real beauty?  |
AuthorMary Whale is an artist and nurse advocating regard for the beauty of the ageing process. Archives
May 2024
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