Ageism:The Last Acceptable Form of Discrimination

Generations of people before us fought for basic liberties and rights. In the UK, women only achieved equal voting rights with men in 1928. We have come a long way in terms of equality, freedom of expression and human rights.

Yet there is one form of discrimination that is still remarkably easy to overlook: ageism.

Ageism is discrimination, prejudice or stereotyping based on a person’s age, and it can affect both young and old. The World Health Organization describes it as something that can happen in institutions, in our relationships with other people and even in the way we see ourselves.

Both men and women experience ageism, but somehow it is often applied to the genders in very different ways.

Men may encounter ageism in the job market. Companies can be reluctant to hire older workers, while experience can sometimes be treated as though it has an expiry date.

Once someone reaches their late fifties, there can still be an assumption that they are less adaptable or less capable of learning new things — the old cliché of “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

And what happens if, at the age of 50, someone decides that their calling in life is to work in television and has to start off as a runner?

The chances may be slim. And if it does happen, imagine the reaction: A runner at 50?

Why should that be strange?

It can also be difficult for someone later in life to start all over again in a completely different career. We talk constantly about following your dreams, reinventing yourself and having a second career, yet society doesn’t always make this easy when you are no longer young.

But while both sexes may experience ageism in the workplace, men are not generally subjected to the same level of scrutiny over their appearance as women.

Women, on the other hand, are not so lucky.

Women have kept silent about this for years, sometimes because we have been made to believe that getting older makes us less desirable to men and less valuable to society in general.

The beauty and fashion industries can benefit from this anxiety — the idea that women must look a certain way by a certain age, and that women in their 40s, 50s or 60s should try to look younger at almost any cost.

We see the pressure everywhere: anti-ageing creams, hair colour, cosmetic procedures, filters and endless messages telling women that looking their age is somehow a problem.

This is not to say that women shouldn’t enjoy fashion, make-up, cosmetic treatments or anything else that makes them feel good. The problem begins when ageing itself is treated as something that needs to be hidden.

It is up to us, women, to fight against this psychological form of discrimination by speaking about it and by not being ashamed of our age.

We have to embrace our age, whatever it is, and stop thinking about it in terms that no longer cut it in our times.

The women of 100 years ago were not the women of today in the way they thought, acted, dressed or lived. Our lives have changed enormously, so why should we continue to use old ideas about age to define what a woman can or cannot be?

We cannot allow age-related insecurities to win over our own achievements as people.

Age doesn’t erase experience. It doesn’t erase talent, curiosity, sexuality, creativity, ambition or the desire to start something completely new.

And men will not necessarily discard you when you no longer look young. Society does not have to discard you either.

It is up to all of us to start challenging ageism by pointing it out when we hear a disparaging comment about someone’s age.

Ageism feeds into our throwaway culture. It contributes to youth-obsessed societies in which older people can be made to feel as though they have little left to offer.

But older people have experience, knowledge, creativity and stories. And younger people have things to offer too. Ageism can work in both directions.

The WHO has pointed out that ageism affects people of all ages and that younger people can also experience negative assumptions because of their age.

Perhaps the real problem is that we have become too comfortable with putting people into boxes according to the year they were born.

We should be looking at the person, not the number.

There is truly nothing good about ageism.

Pics by Tim Ward.