An internationally recognized expert on ageism, Ashton Applewhite is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. She speaks widely at venues that have included the TED mainstage and the United Nations, and is at the forefront of the emerging movement to raise awareness of ageism and to dismantle it.
Here’s an excerpt from her website home, which hit me smack between the eyes, and was a spectacular leaping off point for our chat:
"It’s not HEALTHY to go through life dreading our futures.
It's not being women that makes life harder for women, it is sexism.
It is not loving a man that makes life harder for gay guys, it is homophobia.
It’s not the passage of time that makes getting older so much harder than it has to be, it is ageism.
DISCRIMINATION IS THE PROBLEM, NOT AGING. Makes barriers acceptable. Shame and fear creates markets, and capitalism always need new markets.
Aging is not a problem to be fixed.
It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process.
In this ep, we speak about:
- Who benefits from ageism and all other isms
- Ashton’s response to the concept of “anti-aging” in the beauty industry
- Her perfectly put response to someone asking “Is that appropriate at your age?”
- How the older the person, the less their age reveals about them — because we grow more different from one another over time.
- Challenging the status quo of aging is negative to “aging is living”
And so much more status-quo challenging gold.
Listen in to this episode at:
Listen to Ashton Applewhite’s TED Talk “Let’s End Ageism” here
Read Ashton’s Book “This Chair Rocks: A manifesto Against Agesim” here
Check out Old School: The Anti Ageism Clearinghouse here
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