Aging, Particularly the Discrimination Against the Elderly,

Aging, particularly the discrimination against the elderly, is inextricably linked with the field of sociology because it affects the way in which humans behave. Moreover, it is an important social issue because societal attitudes toward aging inform the construction of social institutions. The plight of the elderly is often overlooked in favor of other underrepresented groups, but an analysis of media, politics, and other social constructs reveals that there the elderly are segregated at an analogous level to other marginalized groups. This paper explores aging as it pertains to sociology, exploring the myriad ways in which the elderly are discriminated against and why the study of aging is an integral component to sociology.

As a field of inquiry, sociology is concerned with the construction of society and the analysis of the ways in which human behavior is shaped by society. On first glance, aging may not appear to constitute a viable component of sociological research, since all animals age, regardless of their socioeconomic status or ideological beliefs. However, upon further review, it becomes quickly apparent that the elderly are represented differently from younger age groups, and are often portrayed negatively or in wildly inaccurate ways. This paper examines the injurious portrayal of the elderly in society, as well as the relevancy of aging within the greater field of sociology.

The pejorative treatment of the elderly is perhaps best represented by the term "ageism," a term that encompasses the many ways in which people are viewed as inferior as they get older. The progression from middle to old age is thus portrayed as the deterioration from productivity to dependency on the sacrifice of others. American culture is a progress-driven culture, and the inability of many elderly people to work is largely responsible for the discrimination against them as a cultural group in the United States. Despite the fact that aging is unavoidable, the elderly are made to feel increasingly inadequate as they get older. To this end, the pejorative way in which the term "ageism" is deployed attests to a dominant perception in which the elderly are responsible for their physical ailments and physical and financial dependency.

Perhaps the foremost area in which the elderly are portrayed in society is through having an inextricable association with disease and illness (Rozanova 2006). Indeed, television commercials that involve the elderly nearly always portray them as being afflicted with disease or as advertising a product that has helped them overcome their disease. Moreover, the vast majority of these diseases are ones that are particularly germane to the elderly. For example, the elderly are often shown in commercials advertising solutions for diseases such as shingles or diabetes. Because illness has canonically been conveyed as constituting a deviation from the mainstream, such a depiction is unfavorable to the elderly (Rozanova 2006). Although it is undeniable that the elderly are more susceptible to such afflictions, they have become pigeonholed into advertising solutions for illnesses, as though their age group were physically insufficient and incapable of functioning without external aid. Newspapers and other social constructs portray the elderly as uneducated about wellness and implicitly suggest that they are to blame for their illnesses. It is also important to consider the many ways in which the elderly are not represented by the media and in society; they are rarely deployed as the target demographic for products associated with health or beauty, the implication being that their physical attributes have deteriorated to the point that they require products that will assist them in overcoming physical ailments rather than enhancing their physical attractiveness.

It is well-known that certain populations are more saturated with elderly people than others. For example, states such as Florida or Maine have a particularly large proportion of elderly people. However, a lesser-known fact is that there are different reasons for the large proportion of elderly residents in different parts of the United States (Jenson & Deller 2007). Specifically, the elderly population in Florida consists primarily of people who have moved there in retirement age, while in Maine the large proportion is due to the large proportion of younger residents who have moved out of the state. An analysis of aging must take into not only the cultural group as a whole (the entire elderly population in the United States) but also the subsets in different regions around the country.