Sidedoor
Wrinkled Radicals
Nov 22, 2023
Katherine Ott, historian at the Smithsonian, discusses Maggie Kuhn and the Gray Panthers, an anti-ageism movement. They challenged societal norms through protests and stunts, changing perceptions of old age. The chapter also focuses on the neglect of older Americans and the issue of ageism in storytelling.
31:20
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Quick takeaways
- The Grey Panthers challenged ageist stereotypes and fought for social change on various fronts, including advocating for media representation of older Americans and contributing to the removal of mandatory retirement laws.
- The Grey Panthers established a media watch task force to track ageist depictions in TV shows, cartoons, and advertisements, leading to federal investigations and new TV media standards that countered stereotypes of elderly people as sexless, powerless, and mindless.
Deep dives
The Birth of the Grey Panthers
In the late 1960s, mandatory retirement was legal, and Maggie Coon was forced to retire from her job at the age of 65. Feeling unheard and undervalued, she organized a meeting with other professional women facing retirement. From this gathering, the Grey Panthers, an intergenerational social action organization, was born. The Grey Panthers challenged ageist stereotypes and fought for social change on various fronts. They exposed nursing home abuses, advocated for media representation of older Americans, and contributed to the removal of mandatory retirement laws. Maggie Coon's charisma and organizing skills led the movement, and within a decade, the Grey Panthers had thousands of members nationwide.
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