How Are Older Adults Portrayed In The Media And Popular Culture

Television and film do a wonderful job of widowing parents or creating a life so intertwined with their children that is their identity. When we do witness the actions around sexuality and the aging it is almost never serious, often leaving one to think that that the elderly engaging in any sexual contact will prove perverted, dangerous or lethal (Dan Sewell). Much like advertisements for products incite us to buy them, the views of sexuality and senior citizens we see in the media carries into real life, leaving the elderly to be labeled as either asexual or are met with phrases like "dirty old man" or cougar, simply for having a desire that exists within all of us. Being of the community and seeing these perceptions does not make it easy to be open about feelings regarding the topic on any level, exacerbating any existing esteem issues that could be onset of aging (Melanie

In this blog, I will be analyzing “Modern Family.” The actor is will be looking at is Ed O’Neil, he was also in “Married with Children” a Fox Network production. I will also briefly analyze his wife in the TV show “Modern Family,” Sofia Vergara. The book talks about how ageism is differ by gender. “In our society, women are more likely to be evaluated according to their sexual attractiveness, whereas men are more likely to be evaluated by their occupational success,” (Jill Quadagno 2014, p. 13). I have seen this in my personal life as well; some people say that men with grey hair are sexy. Yet for women this is criticized, go to a Salon and pay money to cover their grey hair

The impact these media representations can have on the overall teen audiences is monumental. The portrayal of adults in teen films creates a negative representation for teens that may watch them. The portrayal of adults in films not only provides teens a vague sense of what their lifestyle should be like, but also gives them a substandard reputation in the eyes of adults. This can have an effect on the teen’s psychosocial, emotions, and mental

Everyone has seen the commercials, television shows, and movies: Life Alert portraying older Americans as being afraid for their lives with an almost comical slogan of “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” The Golden Girls with their typical silly old woman antics and witty comments. Even Disney has not been immune to stereotyping our aging Americans as indicated by the grumpy, lonely old man in Up. Our society is struggling with a rampant bout of Ageism, and most people don’t even realize that it is happening or that ageism is even a real concern. The purpose of the Organization for the Awareness of Media Portrayal of Older Americans (OAMPOA) is to bring public attention to the perhaps unintentional defamation of older adults and to offer

As people continue to live life and grow older, it is inevitable that they will age. Aging has many effects on an individual’s physical health, emotional well-being, and cognition. Key developmental changes occur in vision and hearing; both begin declining as people age (Weiten, 2014). The deterioration of these senses can be seen in Young@Heart during the scene where a few members are joking around in a car. The driver was Lenny, an ex-World War II pilot, because he was the only one out of the group who could still see properly (Walker, 2008). The vision of every other member in the car had worsened to a point where it impacted their functioning in daily life by limiting their ways of transportation.

For the elderly, it becomes a concern as it does with losing any other motor function. Society has become increasingly more aware that the elderly is just as concerned with their sexual performance as the younger generation. Subramanyam & Pinto (2011), address that most elderly have difficultly verbalizing their sexuality because of shame. Shame formulates from what we believe is acceptable and unacceptable in society and how we will be perceived.

Ageing females are also portrayed as undesirable in the media due to the language used. This language is aimed at shaping, reinforcing, and reflecting the attitudes and responses made towards growing older among women. Language is understood to carry and convey the meaning which leads to the assumptions that encourage the development of discrimination and stereotypes towards ageing females. The language also has the ability to encode stereotypes and scripts that are discriminatory in nature which makes discrimination a normal part of everyday life. In particular, the media can play a role in the establishment of implicit bias through using language that is stereotypical and prejudicial when representing ageing females in the media (Gendron et al., 2016). This in turn makes older women to be portrayed as undesirable in the media. An example where the language used by media has contributed to the portrayal of ageing females as undesirable can be drawn from a popular sitcom, “The Golden Girls”, aired between 1985 and 1992. This comedy highlighted social issues that are associated with elderly women. In this comedy, the negative construction of ageing women was illustrated by the character of the octogenarian mother, where this character was depicted as being intelligent but yet stubborn with a difficult to please character. Another example of how language is used by media to portray ageing females as undesirable can be drawn from a popular commercial made during the mid-1980s. In this commercial, one of the three old women is heard asking repeatedly about where the beef is, in which older people are seen as stupid and small while being exploited (Vickers, 2007). The language used in these examples appear disparaging towards older women while illustrating the extent at which ageing women are portrayed as undesirable in the media.

In America, people are changing their views on aging and the elderly. Some of the reasons that the attitudes are changing could be due to more elderly people are remaining in the work place longer, as opposed to retiring early. Riffkin (2014). And there is the fact that we baby boomers are living longer. Even though the U.S. only ranks 53rd with a life expectancy of 79. That’s an increase of one year since 2010. (“The World: Life Expectancy” 2016)

Stereotypes have an overwhelming effect especially on the people they are directed towards. Studying stereotypes helps in understanding the factors leading to discrimination of certain people and not others. This is because stereotypes are depictive of opinions that are often passed from one generation to another within a particular culture. Mass media such as television and newspapers form a common source of opinions in the contemporary society (Kotter & Hess, 2012). The media presents messages in steady, repetitive, and compelling manner, making them believable to almost everybody. Stereotyping opinion and depictions from the media can thus have detrimental effects on the

It seems as though sexuality as one ages is most affected by issues such as menopause. Men also go through a similar hormonal shift as they get older. The problem is not with the change in hormones, as that is a normal part of aging. The problem is with the fact that there is still a taboo when it comes to talking about these kinds of things. Men do not want to hear about "female trouble," and even women do not like to talk about it. It

Aging is very much a woman's issue. Karen’s statement was about her fear of getting older and dealing with younger people’s perceptions of aging. This phase of life will be more challenging than burning our bras.

In this passage, I am going to tell you all about the media’s portrayal about adulthood. The media has always had a strange relationship with aging celebrities. The gossip magazines didn’t help either, growing up as a kid I wasn’t allowed to read them. As I got older I noticed that in these magazines if someone had a wrinkle it was all over the front page. Those types of things can make young men and women think that there is something wrong with aging.

In addition, Deuchar (2010) pointed out that for youth under frequent curfews and ASBOs, which are often unfairly charged on them, makes it difficult for youth to go out of their homes to seek employment or to commit to a job because of the curfew hours. Additionally, as a result of confinement to homes and poor job prospects, young people experience strain relationship with their family (Deuchar 2010). Hence, not only do negative stereotypes of youth in the media hurt young people’s opportunities to seek employment, it has also caused youth to be in strain relationship with their family (Bannister & Kearns 2012; BBC 2014; Deuchar 2010; Dugan 2014).

Older men and older women are portrayed in negatively throughout media and other ways through society. Their age is not the only problem, their gender also plays' a role in how society views each gender of older individuals.

Men, as well as women, face frequent issues while they age, whether that is age discrimination, mental health diseases, or just general health problems. As for men, they live a much shorter life than women do. A numberless of people wonder why that is: Men have an inclination of high-risk behaviors, such as alcohol abuse, smoking, driving recklessly, and going to war. Some women participate in some, if not all of these activities as well—more men participate in these activities more than women do. If a man abuses drugs while he ages, he is not only going to live a shorter life, but also going to continue to abuse those drugs since it is tough for him to quit, for