"How Media View Older Adults" Response

2/5/2017 2 Comments

"How Media View Older Adults" Response

To start the year off right, I will attend to my blog by responding to an article in the most recent Alberta RN magazine called: “How Media view Older Adults”. It is based on a recent study that reviewed over 600 articles about health provision to older adults. They found that not one portrayed older adults positively.
Unlike the authors, I have noticed that television movies and advertising are beginning to represent a more authentic image of older adults however stereotypes persist. I do agree with authors that we must question the source of our biases. The main premise for my blog is to facilitate an acceptance for the ageing aesthetic.

I believe we are culturally resistant to this stage of life, even though it is rich with life experience/learnings/wisdom and visually more ‘beautiful’ than any other stage. Diversity in ageing is acknowledged medically as challenging, creating a resistance to etiology and algorithms which form the foundation for diagnosis and treatment in today’s hectic healthcare system. Aesthetically however, this ongoing evolution of line and form, imbued by life’s journey, makes every being a living art form culminating in old age.
A reason to celebrate/embrace/revere/venerate the aesthetic of ageing beauty.

2 Comments

Dr. Michael Alpern

9/18/2017 04:47:48 pm

Beautiful word images, Mary. Thank you. However, ageing is a process that begins at conception...not a culmination. In the context of "how media view older adults," might it be that this is because many older people tend to view themselves and ageing negatively. Could it be that the media is simply reflecting the reality that it sees in the eyes, words and disposition of older people. Both the concept and the reality of ageing may be charted on a continuum ranging from "positive expectation" to "fearful dread". Unless challenged by the diseases and/or conditions often attributed to older people, each "senior" has the opportunity to chart the remainder of his/her living destiny. The chart may depict their will to live rather than a living will and portray positive expectations or fearful dread... I believe we each have a choice.

mary

9/20/2017 09:52:42 am

Thank you for your thoughts Michael. I would like to clarify that I was referring to the ageing aesthetic as a culmination of visual beauty...in my eyes.
In the matter of the media, I hold them at least partially responsible for our broad ageing identity. Their influence is insidious.
As a culture, we have put such great emphasis and pride on remaining independent to the point of being very impractical. My parents' generation was one of pioneers whose very survival depended on their own strength; both physical and emotional. I think now, as a society we would be further evolved to reach for successful interdependence; where people engage with one another to reach their individual self actualization.
But there I go again Michael, wandering from one way of knowing into the other. I was intending only to 'defend' my aesthetic knowledge in ageing. The latter is an entirely different conversation!
Thanks you again for responding
mary

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