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‘I know it exists … but I haven't experienced it personally’: older Canadian men's perceptions of ageism as a distant social problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2015

LAURA HURD CLARKE  and
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
LAURA HURD CLARKE*
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
ALEXANDRA KOROTCHENKO
Affiliation:
School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
*
Address for correspondence: Laura Hurd Clarke, School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156–1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, CanadaV6 T 1Z2 E-mail: laura.hurd.clarke@ubc.ca
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Abstract

This paper examines how older men perceive, experience and internalise ageist prejudice in the context of their everyday lives. We draw on in-depth interviews with 29 community-dwelling Canadian men aged 65–89. Although one-third of our participants were unfamiliar with the term ageism, the majority felt that age-based discrimination was prevalent in Canadian society. Indicating that they themselves had not been personally subjected to ageism, the men considered age-based discrimination to be a socially distant problem. The men explained their perceived immunity to ageism in terms of their youthful attitudes and active lifestyles. The men identified three groups who they considered to be particularly vulnerable to age-based discrimination, namely women, older workers and frail elders residing in institutions. At the same time, the majority of our participants had internalised a variety of ageist and sexist stereotypes. Indeed, the men assumed that later life was inevitably a time of physical decline and dependence, and accepted as fact that older adults were grumpy, poor drivers, unable to learn new technologies and, in the case of older women, sexually unattractive. In this way, a tension existed between the men's assertion that ageism did not affect their lives and their own internalisation of ageist stereotypes. We consider our findings in relation to the theorising about ageism and hegemonic masculinity.

Keywords

ageismolder meneveryday lifeinternalised prejudicegendered ageismworkplace discriminationageist stereotypes
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 36 , Issue 8 , September 2016 , pp. 1757 - 1773
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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