Dance and Music Therapy as Anti- Ageism: In View of Jimi Solanke

Abstract

Ageism, like all other forms of prejudice, undoubtedly has a variety of causes and serves a variety of functions. Ageism can simply be defined as negative attitudes or behaviors toward an individual solely based on that person’s age. Negative attitudes toward people because they are young or old, would qualify as ageism. With this ageism, many older people, engage in self-debasement, hating themselves and their lives and the company of their peers, feeling they are worthless and there is nothing left to live for. As Tony Ward has noted with regard to the images of ageism:

Negative and discriminatory stereotyping is widely practised on TV and in the media, and can have considerable ill-effects not just on attitudes towards the elderly, but also on the self-perception of the elderly themselves (8).

In most cases, there are several explanations for the “invisibility” of abused older people and the lack of attention given to them. In organized societies, older men are often located in rather “invisible” settings where their abuse will not be seen (and reported). Such settings include inner cities and rural areas, and within prisons, “homeless” shelters, halfway houses, boarding homes, and institutional settings (such as mental health facilities and long-term care facilities). The fact that there may be relatively few older men in some of these residential settings adds to the lack of awareness of their problems. Moreover, because older men are often found within domestic settings, their abuse is less likely to be witnessed by non-family members. Older people, living on the streets, are often a faceless group, and their mental illnesses, substance abuse, and impoverishment can lead to stigmatization that can be coupled with sexism and ageism. The result cannot only be their invisibility but also their irrelevance to the larger community. With these negative attitudes, physical support is gladly given to the dependent young, whereas it tends to be given grudgingly to the dependent old.  Perhaps, this has something to do with the fact that the old have a long past, while the young have a long future. Future potential in the young is more highly valued than a lifetime of past experiences in the old, which are seen as obsolete. The needs of the very dependent elderly are contained in institutions where they can be kept alive until it is time for them to die. Under these conditions, dependency needs are multiplied by the loss of personal identity and autonomy, and by the feeling that life is nothing but a grey, anonymous existence. When life has reached this stage, elders really do need positive input from the society as a whole to counteract the negativity of existing in a shrunken life space, which may feel more like a prison or place of abandonment than a warm and safe home lacking in action and activity.