Author, activist, and TED speaker Ashton Applewhite has written a
rousing manifesto calling for an end to discrimination and prejudice on
the basis of age.
In our youth obsessed culture, we're bombarded by media images and
messages about the despairs and declines of our later years. Beauty and
pharmaceutical companies work overtime to convince people to purchase
products that will retain their youthful appearance and vitality.
Wrinkles are embarrassing. Gray hair should be colored and bald heads
covered with implants. Older minds and bodies are too frail to keep up
with the pace of the modern working world and olders should just step
aside for the new generation.
Ashton Applewhite once held these beliefs too until she realized where
this prejudice comes from and the damage it does. Lively, funny, and
deeply researched, This Chair Rocks traces her journey from
apprehensive boomer to pro-aging radical, and in the process debunks
myth after myth about late life. Explaining the roots of ageism in
history and how it divides and debases, Applewhite examines how ageist
stereotypes cripple the way our brains and bodies function, looks at
ageism in the workplace and the bedroom, exposes the cost of the
all-American myth of independence, critiques the portrayal of elders as
burdens to society, describes what an all-age-friendly world would look
like, and offers a rousing call to action.
It's time to create a world of age equality by making discrimination on
the basis of age as unacceptable as any other kind of bias. Whether
you're older or hoping to get there, this book will shake you by the
shoulders, cheer you up, make you mad, and change the way you see the
rest of your life. Age pride!
"Wow. This book totally rocks. It arrived on a day when I was in deep
confusion and sadness about my age. Everything about it, from my
invisibility to my neck. Within four or five wise, passionate pages, I
had found insight, illumination, and inspiration. I never use the word
empower, but this book has empowered me."
--Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author
