Image: the cover of the book is a black background with yellow and red lines shaped like very elongated teardrops jut out from the center. In the center, in capital white letters is "This Chair Rocks" followed by a white line under which "a manifesto of ageism" is in yellow capital letters. At the bootom of the book is the author's name, Ashton Applewhite, in smaller white letters.
I had extremely high hopes for Ashton Applewhite's This Chair Rocks. I try to remain up to speed on how to fight oppression in general, but ageism is definitely something I could stand to learn more about. As a 36 year old, I am able to escape (for now) a lot of the ageism that older and younger people face. Thus, I want to know what part I can play in combating ageism. The book did not completely fail in giving me some ideas and teaching me to think differently here or there, but overall an extremely important topic ended up completely drowning in the author's unchecked white-centrism and lack of understanding and experience of oppressions other than ageism and (white) womanhood. I am white, so I am sure there are even more things I will miss in this review. This is normally a book I would have considered putting down, but I wanted to make sure I experienced the whole thing to give a much needed comprehensive review since it a new edition is due out. This is especially important given Applewhite's reach and appeal to wider (I would guess predominantly white) audiences.
There are some things Applewhite does well with this book, so I will begin with those. I felt the writing style itself was fairly accessible. She does attempt to mention how other oppressions are connected to ableism (albeit failing much of the time, which I discuss more later.) I found her discussion of alzheimer's and other forms of dementia to be important and challenged the way I thought about these disorders and the ways people live with them. The sections on sex and dating were ok, dispelling myths that older people somehow shut down in these areas after a certain age. Applewhite is very passionate about the subject and is charting territory in ways that are not as well charted as some other struggles, so props to her for that. Unfortunately, the good things I have to say about this book end there.
One glaringly problematic detail about this book is how she tackles ageism as something only affecting older people. This was a missed opportunity to get deeply into the ways that ageism affects youth and as a result, leads to some faulty conclusions on her part. One example was her stating that people care less or attend less to older people when they have health problems, stemming from the "they're going to die anyways," sentence forced upon people. This is true, but she juxtaposed it with suggestions that younger people are taken more seriously and cared about more when they become sick which I can assure you is not true in many cases. As a person who had to go through the whole social security disability process in their 30s, the belief that I am too young to be sick and whatnot has tainted my experiences. These kinds of ageism stem from the same root and could have made such a better argument if analyzed together. There are many other examples where Applewhite missed an opportunity to discuss the spectrum of ageism and limited herself and her argument to "olders." There are ways to discuss the parts of youth that are valued in US American culture without ignoring that youth, especially those under 18, also face ageism. It is not that she never mentions younger people, but I can probably count on both hands the number of sentences in the entire book that included them.
The next thing that needs to be discussed is the thing that bothered me most about reading this book. Applewhite regularly mentions other oppressions and "intersectionality" throughout her book. But, her lack of understanding of them and of how intersectionality actually works caused her efforts to to be tokenizing at best. She does occasionally mention that marginalized older people do struggle more, but it is rare and in passing, overall making the image of the person suffering ageism to be a white older person. This was especially evident in the common white, liberal, single-issue activism mistake of repeating something to the tune of "we no longer tolerate racism, sexism, or homophobia but we still tolerate ageism." It left me wondering just how sheltered Applewhite is if she is so comfortable suggesting these oppressions are somehow over. This gets even worse when she starts making insulting comparisons that not only create a binary of white older person or Black/gay/disabled/etc other person, but are downright bothersome I am sure even to people who aren't as immersed in leftist lingo as I am. Granted, some of these things are quotes from others, but quotes she celebrates and cosigns.
Some examples of tokenism and ignorance are her celebration of the phrase "when you become old you become black," her comparison of US American slavery to modern day ageist discrimination in the workplace, her honoring of her husband confronting a bouncer for calling him grandpa for saying in response something like "that would be similar to me calling you the n-word," claiming she wants (cisgender heterosexual) older people to consider adopting the term "age queer," comparisons between disability justice and the fight against ageism while littering the book with casual ableism (more on this in the next paragraph,) the use of the words "women and blacks" and a possibly unintentional suggestion that the "women's movement" could not be both, and other examples. Basically, Applewhite seems to care more about tokenizing oppressions she does not suffer for her thesis than she does actually understanding and fighting these oppressions. This is something I do think she cares about though and could definitely grow on, but the book has been out for years and I am reviewing the newest edition that came out in March. Thus, it still mirrors many of the issues found when white liberal cis women lead a conversation. This means someone looking at the current state of the USA with neo-nazis marching the streets, mass deportations, the executions of Black, Brown and Indigenous people in the street by police, the banning of trans people from various things, a vice president who supports gay conversion therapy, and so on and claim that racism and homophobia are no longer acceptable, but ageism is. It was infuriating that it happened over and over.
Next I want to focus specifically on disability because of how intertwined it is with ageing. This book is full of casual and some not-so-casual ableism. The most frequent kind is the need to focus on the "productive" older people and to dispel myths that older people are a drain on society rather than fighting against the idea that one must be capitalistically productive or active for one to have worth at all. There are times she almost goes there but then draws back. I think it is perfectly acceptable to highlight the diversity of peoples needs and abilities throughout ageing. I think this was executed badly in this book. With how much Applewhite brings up ableism, I was hoping she would have had a better hold on the core tenets of ableist oppression. Many other oppressions are in some way rooted in ableism, especially ageism. I wish she would have done a better job attacking the idea that for us to matter we must be productive, active, fit, etc. There was also a section about chronic pain that was one of the worst in the book. Strangely enough, it followed a section about how important it is for older people not to be isolated. She celebrates a woman who claims that she will walk out of the room if her friends mention any health problems they are having, because she wants to hear "about their life" instead. Applewhite goes on to say no one, except maybe your mom, wants to hear about your ailments. This is once again placing abled older people in the worthier position and requires that unhealthy disabled/chronically ill people in general lie when asked the age old question, "How are you?" in order to avoid making abled people feel uncomfortable. One can make a point that ageing doesn't always involve suffering without stomping on those who are suffering. I can't think of anything more isolating than knowing a friend would walk out of the room if you confided to her that you had just been diagnosed with metastatic cancer or that you need a knee replacement. Applewhite further goes on to talk about how physical therapy "fixed" her and her daughter's pain and made other statements consistent with someone who does not understand what it is like to deal with severe chronic pain that can't be fixed- something common in many of the most isolated disabled and/or older people.
These and other examples made me often ask myself, "Did Applewhite read her own book before sending it to be published?" She contradicts herself so often that I sometimes struggle to know what she believes. The conclusion of the book does offer some decent suggestions for combating ageism, both internalized and externalized. The book isn't 100% bad. But, it is so clouded with problems and limitations that I cannot recommend it as a worthwhile read. I wish I had something I could suggest in it's place instead.
This was also posted to my goodreads.
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