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8/26/2018 1 Comment Ageism; the battle within I was reminded how history has so many lessons while enjoying some of Edmonton's Fringe festival. Two of the plays I chose had some common threads. They were biographical sketches of Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker; both black entertainers who came to be civil rights activists.
David Hackett Fischer (historian) drew some parallels between prejudices that these early activists battled with their persistent calls for awareness and change. He saw the nature of prejudice to be always ignorant and usually hostile. It begins as a distaste for others and in the case of age (as opposed to race or sex), it turns into distaste for oneself. When you look in the mirror, seek the person you ARE, not the image cast by ignorant biases......
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8/12/2018 0 Comments Raising Awareness I attended a major conference in Toronto this week (August 7-10) hosted by the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) with significant representation from the World Health Organization (WHO) department on Ageing and the Life Course. There were about 1300 delegates representing over 70 countries gathered to share learnings about each others work in this very important area.
Combating Ageism was one of the four main pillars of the conference; affirming the depth and the breadth of this potentially universal prejudice. It is often as subtle as being embarrassed both to ask and respond that you are a 'senior' or to automatically lie about your age. While I was in Toronto: A younger man offered me seat in a crowded bus (did I look that old?!). The transit ticket dispenser person asked if I was a senior in hushed tones (I can only assume to protect me from public humiliation). I have a heightened awareness to these seemingly innocent ageist actions and yet I have not developed an array of polite challenges to them... Ashton Applewhite ("This Chair Rocks") has a blog called "Yo, is this ageist?" that I urge you to check out. |
AuthorMary Whale is an artist and nurse advocating regard for the beauty of the ageing process. Archives
May 2024
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