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<TITLE>The Politics of Ageism: It is ironic that the very same people who are swamped in
ageist attitudes are usually those who fight most vocally against racism and sexism. </TITLE>
<META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="NAMBLA's goal is to end the oppression of men and boyswho have mutually consensual relationships. Our membership is open to everyone sympathetic to man/boy love in particular and sexual freedom in general.">
<META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="NAMBLA, NORTH AMERICAN MAN/BOY LOVE ASSOCIATION, MAN/BOY LOVE, BOYS, BOYS SPEAK OUT ON MAN/BOY LOVE, WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT NAMBLA AND MAN/BOY LOVE, POEMS OF LOVE AND LIBERATION, NAMBLA BULLETIN,NAMBLA TOPICS, NAMBLA JOURNAL, AGEISM, GAY YOUTH, INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN AND GAY ASSOCIATION, ILGA, INTERNATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH ORGANIZATION, DAVID THORSTAD, MICHAEL ALHONTE, MICHAEL C. BAURMANN, JOHN MONEY, ALLEN GINSBERG, WALT WHITMAN, CAMILLE PAGLIA, JANE RULE, THE AGE TABOO, PAT CALIFIA, JIM KEPNER, HARRY HAY">
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<H2 ALIGN=CENTER><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">The POLITICS of AGEISM:</FONT><BR>
</H2>
<H3 ALIGN=CENTER><FONT COLOR="#0000FF">A Statement to the Lesbian and Gay
Community</FONT></H3>
<UL>
<H3 ALIGN=CENTER><I>By</I> Michael Alhonte</H3>
</UL>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<UL>
<P><FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U>Abstract</U>:</FONT> <B>Ageism is a topic which
many individuals in the Lesbian and Gay community have given little or
no attention to. As gay youth, we feel that it is necessary to raise consciousness
on this subject in order to avoid conflicts which may arise out of ageist
attitudes. In this article we attempt to define ageism and show how it
manifests itself within the community. We point out also how ageist behavior
threatens the efficiency of the community as a whole, and provide suggestions
as to how concerned individuals can rid themselves of their ageism.</B></P>
</UL>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<P>The spectre of ageism haunts large segments of the community. Ageist
attitudes and actions are so commonplace and so accepted that the major
difficulty in combating this problem is simply convincing people that there
is a problem. It is ironic that the very same people who are swamped in
ageist attitudes are usually those who fight most vocally against racism
and sexism. Perhaps it is merely symptomatic of the depth of their ageism
that they do not even recognize our complaints as valid.</P>
<P>But what exactly is ageism? Simply stated, people are guilty of ageism
when they:</P>
<P><IMG SRC="yellowba.gif" HSPACE=5 HEIGHT=14 WIDTH=14>ignore a person's
ideas or contributions simply because of that contributing person's age;</P>
<P><IMG SRC="yellowba.gif" HSPACE=5 HEIGHT=14 WIDTH=14>fail to recognize
a person's abilities due solely to his or her age;</P>
<P><IMG SRC="yellowba.gif" HSPACE=5 HEIGHT=14 WIDTH=14>imply that a person's
behavior stems directly from his or her current age.</P>
<P>Ageism has its own vocabulary, its own behavioral code ~ even its own
culture. When we refer to an action as ageist, there are several levels
upon which this can be so. We have heard the ageist motto, &quot;Children
should be seen and not heard&quot;. This is oppression in its purest form,
but there are many more subtle manifestations of ageism. these range from
the outright neglect of young people to cliched put-downs of a young person's
volunteered opinion.<BR>
</P>
<P>When a person uses the word &quot;childish&quot; to describe immature
behavior, (s)he is being ageist. When a department store refuses to admit
people under 16 &quot;unless accompanied by an adult&quot;, it is being
ageist. When a parent speaks of &quot;puppy love&quot; as being cute or
trivial, (s)he is being ageist. And when society refuses to try a 14-year-old
as an adult, this too is ageism.</P>
<P>It is not surprising that ageist remarks and attitudes are plentiful
in the gay community. It is surprising that the members of the community
who hold these attitudes have forgotten the sufferings they themselves
underwent at the hands of ageists, so soon. They have forgotten the parents,
teachers, and family members who attempted to force them into the conformist
mold without considering their individuality. They have forgotten the experience
of having ideas you know to be correct brushed aside or given no credence.
They have forgotten the experience of sitting in a restaurant and being
ignored by waiters while adults receive prompt service. They have forgotten
the embarrassment of being called &quot;Junior&quot; by an adult one-half
your height. They have forgotten what it is like to be young in America.</P>
<P>Ageism is a unique form of oppression in that it is a) never permanent
and b) fully reversible. Oppressed becomes oppressor just as surely as
day becomes night. And this apes on through such socially sanctioned methods
as the father's moans, &quot;When I was your age I was already. . .&quot;
or &quot;When I was your age I couldn't even...&quot; which both imply
that behavior advances in easily designated stages and no one should be
permitted to act in a manner considered inappropriate to his/her supposed
stage. This cyclical, self-sustaining action is what makes ageism so dangerous.
When a child's ideas and feelings are suppressed or invalidated, it is
very easy to replace these ideas and feelings with those which are not
necessarily the child's own. After this occurs, the child is merely a tiny
clone of his/her oppressor - ready to support, in thought, word, and deed,
every action of that oppressor, which (s)he has been mistakenly led to
believe would have been his/her own action in similar circumstances.</P>
<P>Another danger of ageism is the stagnation it is liable to bring to
the movement. Squelch the voices of the young and you squelch new ideas,
new outlooks, and new patterns of thought - those which have not been tainted
by the years of hypocrisy and self-contempt which have afflicted so many
who came out before Stonewall. The young are famous for our radicalism
~ attributed by some, ageistically of course, to our &quot;naivete&quot;
and our &quot;optimism&quot;. Supposedly we have not experienced enough
of the world's ways to have become cynical enough to understand that &quot;we
can't change anything.&quot; This ageist doctrine merely wastes the power
of youth to help change the world; whatever the source of our energy and
radicalism it still exists and should be cultivated rather than denigrated.
</P>
<P>Gay Youth of New York is a pioneer group ~ founded fully four months
before Stonewall. Few other groups can make this claim. Even before the
gay rights movement as we know it had begun, youth had already started
to take a stand ~ to affirm their identities ~ to try to change the world.<BR>
</P>
<P>I have shown to you the threat posed by ageism to the sustenance of
this movement. Eliminate the young people and you eliminate any chance
of a future. </P>
<P>So how can one overcome one's unconscious ageism and raise one's consciousness?
The first step is to examine one's vocabulary. Check to see if it contains
words like &quot;child&quot;, &quot;kid&quot;, or &quot;baby&quot; ~ when
used in a pejorative way to denote unruly or immature behavior. Or phrases
like &quot;Lesbians and Gay Men&quot;, which fails to note the large gay
male population under 18; like &quot;(S)he's at that age&quot; or ''(S)he's
only a kid&quot;, which attach unfair behavioral judgments to certain age
levels; or &quot;You're old enough to know better&quot;, which implies
that knowledge and age must always grow in direct proportion to one another.</P>
<P>Many who hear about ageism dismiss it simply as another attempt by &quot;those
young whippersnappers&quot; to bully adults into letting them run about
wild and do whatever they want. What these people fail to acknowledge is
that the whole point of any kind of liberation movement is for its participants
to gain the freedom to do &quot;whatever they want.&quot; Youth liberation
is no different in this respect from Women's Liberation, Gay Liberation,
Third World Liberation, or any liberation movement. To dismiss youth as
unworthy of this freedom because &quot;they're just kids&quot; is of course
in itself the height (or should one say the nadir) of ageist acts.</P>
<P>This article deals with ageism against youth. But let us not forget
that there is equal ageism directed against the elderly. Charges of senility
or similar excuses are often used to suppress the voices of our older generations.
American society sloughs senior citizens off like dead skin ~ funnelling
them into nursing homes or hospitals where they sit and collect dust. No
one seems to understand that old age is an inevitability ~ and that once
one realizes the rage and frustration of being cast from the society one
has served for so long, it will be too late.</P>
<P>The conquest of ageism should be an important goal of the present-day
Gay movement. Young people are some of the most involved, dedicated, vocal,
and efficient people currently active in the community. We, who work equally
hard towards liberation for all as any adult, should not be subjected to
the indignities of oppression by those people who would deny our efforts.
So we will not take the seat in the back of the bus so many would prefer
to see us in. We will not idly listen while decisions are made concerning
us without our consultation. We will not allow ourselves to be overlooked,
overpowered, or ridiculed. We will not continue to internalize the ageist
propaganda fed to us by parents and teachers. We will not agree blindly
to anything told us merely because the person telling us is three times
our age. We WILL BE HEARD!!!!</P>
<P>(Michael Alhonte is 18 and a member of Gay Youth of New York.) </P>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<P>This article is from <I><A HREF="bulletin.htm">The NAMBLA BULLETIN</A></I>,
Vol. 4, No. 3 ( April, 1983), Pg. 8. </P>
<CENTER><P><IMG SRC="colorbar.gif" HEIGHT=3 WIDTH=600></P></CENTER>
<P><A HREF="boys.htm"><IMG SRC="m0p7nau7.gif" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=58 WIDTH=58></A><FONT COLOR="#804000">Copyright
&copy; NAMBLA, 1998. All rights reserved. </FONT></P>
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