AGEISM IN RHETORIC: INTERNALIZATION A PROXY BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD. AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

The aging population is one of the fastest-growing age groups the world has seen. As the aging population expands, the awareness of ageism becomes paramount. Common and ubiquitous stereotypes of older adults foster complacency toward the acceptance of biased social norms and assumptions. This autoethnography provides a meaningful examination of how women, including myself, navigate aging and the strategies taken to deflect, manage, and reckon with ageist rhetoric that has been internalized over the life span. By applying a social interactionist framework to my observations, I provide a descriptive narrative of how age beliefs manifest, ultimately affecting how we think, feel, speak, and behave in society as we age. A fair amount of research comes from a medical perspective using quantitative methods to measure and determine mortality, morbidity, and life expectancy using chronological age as a variable. A vast majority are looking to explain what successful aging means and how it is measured. Research methods taken to reach conclusive results of how negative language affects subjective age vary from survey collection to word prompts. Very little research is conducted by the use of personal reflective narrative, where subject is subject, helping to explain why older adults talk about themselves and others negatively during social interaction. In my explanation and analysis, I uncover themes related to how internalized ageism becomes a proxy between good and bad.