Age Identity

Age Identity

1. What is age identity?

   • Age is sometimes looked at chronologically- as in your actual age (17). Alternatively age is often looked at a stage in the life courses : Childhood,youth,adulthood etc.
   • The problem with looking at stages in the life courses is that the ages at which they start and end vary they can be seen as socially constructed.
   • For example, When does childhood end? When does middle age start? Individuals will also differ some keep their 'youth' going for longer, others seem 'old before their time'.

2. Childhood & Neil Postman (1982)

   • In some cultures 'Childhood' is not seen as a period of innocence,dependence or vulnerability, as in the UK.
   • For example, children will be working and even fighting as armed soldiers in some countries. Another example, marriage may be considered at the age 12-13 especially for girls.
   • Today it is argued that we have a contradictory view with the childhood in the UK. Children are either portrayed in the media as little angels and vulnerable victims or as little devils (delinquent or shocking)
   • Neil Postman (1982)
     • Argues that childhood is emerged only when the spread of literacy enabled adults to better shield children from various aspects of adult life.
     • Particularly certain aspects of sexuality and certain horrors associated with death and disease- so the 'innocent' child was created.
     • He suggests that the emergence and spread of the media and visual culture in the twentieth century has brought about a decline in childhood and threatens, ultimately, to bring about it's disappearance.

3. Youth (Margret Mead & Hamar Tribe)

   • Tends to be associated with those between ages 12-25. In our culture, youth is socially constructed as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood and a time of rebellion/resistance.
   • Margaret Mead (1928)
     • Argued that the 'storm and stress' associated with youth is culturally specific and not found in all cultures,through her findings and methodology have been questioned.
   • The Hamar tribe
     • Lives in Ethiopia and has a culture rich in ceremony and ritual. To reach adulthood, Hamar males must preform a ceremony where they leap onto the backs of cattle and run across them. The women are whipped before this ceremony to prove their devotion to men.

4. Middle age (Bradley 1996)

   • Middle age tends to be associated with those in their forties and fifties.
   • Bradley (1996)
     • Argues it has a higher status than youth or old age- middle - aged people are running the country and hold power at work.
     • However,middle age is also seen as a negative time, as 'youth' is lost and old age comes closer.
     • It is sometimes associated with negative ideas, such as a 'mid-life crisis' and 'empty nest syndrome'

5. Old age (Conner (1999)

   • When does old age start? some say it starts at retirement age, but there is a lot of difference between a 65 -years-old and an 85- year old.
   • Conner (1999(
     • Study was mostly negative, reflecting that used by the media and popular culture. Participants described the problems of old age for society and the 'burden' of the ageing population.
     • Participants were concerned with becoming a 'burden' themselves and the dominant stereotype they presented was of later life being a time of ill-health and dependency.