Old Age

 

Introducing a various range of ideas around old age has a significant issue with diseases, giving an impartial reasoning and understanding about the different trends within society and how they can change a person’s attitude about their moral self. Also, discussing the human body and what is socially proven to be the ‘normal’ body.

Ageing can add a lot of pressure for those who fit in this category, revealing them to be almost outcast from the generations below. More recently with the improvements of technology we can see a clearer pattern in the figures. For example, statistics show that as the older you get your IQ decreases, although it also reveals a decrease in the chances of being diagnosed with dementia as you get older (Jurica et al, 2001).

This significant difference is deceiving as the HIV duration increases as you get older, from 2-24 years to 9-25. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779137/

This implication can correspond to the reasoning for why many women are ashamed of feeling old and therefore go to many lengths to change that, such as surgery, medication or even creams to remove that old age stigma from themselves.

In relation to medication and stigma. Advertisement and medical ‘help’, can be a huge influence for many who are struggling with mental health issues at an older age; medication is a major factor in rehabilitation.

However, it can also be a way for companies to take advantage of women’s emotions, “Research indicates that aging take a greater toll on women in comparison to men”.(Deustch, Zalenski, & Clark 1986), (Kogan, 1979), much like the media who are the main culprits for public negativity around the human body and mental health.

‘£1.10 daily pill that can cut your risk of heart disease in half’. https://www.multivits.co.uk/news/2012/05/

The pharmaceutical companies look upon the consumer as ‘prey to the predator’, and use media to absorb them into buying their new product as a solution to all the consumer’s health issues. They even use the term ‘risk in half’, but without significant proof of this working, although still draws women into buying their product, giving them false hope. Many who are unaware of the chances that this quote is actually true.

“The best example of consumerism is the use of catchy and attractive adverts to persuade consumers to their prescription medication”. (Ritzer 2015)

For those who suffer with any problems like diseases medication and other varieties of medical attention it can be a vital factor in helping them dealing with their problems, so that they can have the ‘normal’ body or even the feeling of it, however there is always a stigma towards the term normal. Media see the term normal as something for everyone to chase after and want to achieve. But defining normal is impossible. The idea of chasing normality is chasing something that you already have.