This week in class we had our final book presentation on ageism. It was a particularly interesting class for me because of the expansion on the concept of age as an -ism in society. Lately, I have been encountering discussions regarding many different types of -isms, such as able-ism and age-ism, two prejudice mindsets that I don’t personally encounter. The idea that there are many characteristics that could present potential problems for any person based on that characteristic is an important thing to acknowledge. Struggles are relative, so something that seems like a fairly simple problem to solve may be an incredibly difficult problem for someone else. The opposition to the understanding of these circumstances present grounds for labeling the “-ism.”
I follow a girl on Twitter who has a series of disabilities causing her to be in a wheelchair and consequently she has many mental/emotional disabilities as well. She tweets often about her struggles with encountering able-ism, a phenomenon where people who don’t have disabilities tend to blame a disabled person for their lack of ability to complete a task or question why they are not able to do something that seems normal to them. The discussion regarding age-ism shared some parallels with the things I have learned about able-ism from my friend’s Twitter. Age-ism can also involve a lack of understanding of an older person’s inability to complete a task in the same way that a younger person would. This is similar to the struggle described in able-ism. The opposite can also occur, where seniors experience younger people or their peers underestimating them, simply because they are old. Personally, I can see the experiences of ageism being incredibly frustrating. As a woman, I experience sexism. I’m a passionate as well as an emotional person, so sometimes this can appear very easily in my speech when I talk about things I care about. I’ve gotten responses about my passion, as if it turns people off, or deters them from listening to my thoughts. I often think, if I were a man, would my passion ignite passion within others instead? Would people feel more united behind my thoughts?
After the discussion, the remainder of the oral history projects were presented, mine included. I really loved everyone’s projects that they came up with! I was particularly impressed by Kyle’s. The idea to use the samples of wood as a medium was very creative and thoughtful. I hope Trish enjoyed everyone’s presentations as well. It was interesting for her to bring up the point that maybe, through the phone and facetime, some of our EPs were more likely to open up about things that they might not have normally. This is because of the physical distance and comfort involved in the conversation. On the other hand, the inability to communicate in person may also have presented some issues with full comprehension and communication for this project.
I follow a girl on Twitter who has a series of disabilities causing her to be in a wheelchair and consequently she has many mental/emotional disabilities as well. She tweets often about her struggles with encountering able-ism, a phenomenon where people who don’t have disabilities tend to blame a disabled person for their lack of ability to complete a task or question why they are not able to do something that seems normal to them. The discussion regarding age-ism shared some parallels with the things I have learned about able-ism from my friend’s Twitter. Age-ism can also involve a lack of understanding of an older person’s inability to complete a task in the same way that a younger person would. This is similar to the struggle described in able-ism. The opposite can also occur, where seniors experience younger people or their peers underestimating them, simply because they are old. Personally, I can see the experiences of ageism being incredibly frustrating. As a woman, I experience sexism. I’m a passionate as well as an emotional person, so sometimes this can appear very easily in my speech when I talk about things I care about. I’ve gotten responses about my passion, as if it turns people off, or deters them from listening to my thoughts. I often think, if I were a man, would my passion ignite passion within others instead? Would people feel more united behind my thoughts?
After the discussion, the remainder of the oral history projects were presented, mine included. I really loved everyone’s projects that they came up with! I was particularly impressed by Kyle’s. The idea to use the samples of wood as a medium was very creative and thoughtful. I hope Trish enjoyed everyone’s presentations as well. It was interesting for her to bring up the point that maybe, through the phone and facetime, some of our EPs were more likely to open up about things that they might not have normally. This is because of the physical distance and comfort involved in the conversation. On the other hand, the inability to communicate in person may also have presented some issues with full comprehension and communication for this project.