In the current day, I believe that old age and aging are widely perceived as negative and is actively worked against by people (especially women) of all ages. Within this image, it perpetuates the current beauty fixation of “anti aging” where serums, creams, products and services are geared towards making you look as young and beautiful as possible. These current ideas surrounding aging are negative and continuously reinforce concepts of agism and discrimination. Women especially are targeted by these obsessions, and often are ridiculed by not wanting to partake in these practices, or looking “too old” for her age. Anti aging efforts have made society forget what a privilege growing old actually is, and reinforces predatory images of beauty. Anti aging campaigns have gained immense popularity throughout the years, with even girls as young as 10 wanting to participate in skin care out of the fear of aging.

Within these images it shows older people partaking in sport or physical activity. Within the first image, the elderly gentleman is participating in sport to help prolong his physical competency, along with recognizing as he gets older his performance may decrease also. The elderly woman behind him is participating in the same sport but at a slower pace, recognizing her abilities may decline but still participating to maintain a level of physical activity. Similarly, within the second image, the women acknowledge their ability to do rigorous physical activity is not possible, but to maintain their upper physical competence, they are lifting weighted balls in order to work out those muscles and maintain a level of physical activity.

1. The pickleball debacle in Peterborough examines the struggle of a local park at risk of being paved over in favor of 16 pickleball courts and a parking lot. Most of the city has been vehemently against it due to the park holding importance to not only the people who go there, but also the environmental consequences.  If an entire park was paved over with cement, water from rain would be unable to be absorbed and ultimately cause flooding. Moreover, the grass allows for a cooling effect that would be lost if concrete replaced it. Many of the residents of Peterborough are angered by the idea that $4.4 million dollars of their tax payer money would go towards pickleball courts, and are against it strictly because of the obscene cost. Many people are angered with the city council and regret supporting the current mayor. The efforts of the council have been perceived as misplaced and unwanted by the people of the city, and many want the plan to be scrapped as a whole.  The sports importance to elderly people widely goes unrecognized and the focus falls more on the city council, the cost and environmental consequences
2. Some representations about older athletes reside within the belief that the parks should stay due to kids being active and are meant to increase a child’s physical activity, not the elderly. This is primarily geared towards the replanning of the skate park, where there would be no shade or cool grass to resort to on hot days due to the concrete replacing the surrounding area. The common belief is that these spaces should encourage children to be active, and in their current state, it does. The elderly are often not spoken about or referred to as an afterthought as a result of this city issue. Within these representations, I do believe that ageism is a core factor of these representations of elderly pickleball players. They are used as a scapegoat in this situation and often are constructed as the reasons for the city council to consider this project. Moreover, their physical and mental health is disregarded by people on social media, where they prioritize one group’s physical health over another, instead of seeing the benefit for both parties. These issues often tie back into the notion of elderly people and athletes being seen as burdens on society, in need of constant care, and financially expensive. Due to the price point of the project, it would be easy for the public to blame elderly people for their tax dollars going towards something else “meaningless”. The neoliberal idea of aging is evident through the attempted control and surveillance of elderly people, where efforts to allow aging people an opportunity to partake in physical activity are restricted by broader media. On the governmental side of the argument for instance, the council sees the park as an opportunity for elderly people to care for their health instead of making it a concern of the economy and social services. Additionally, however in this image, it also shows the demographic pickleball appeals to opposing the idea of these courts. While these efforts by the council may have been to support their elderly populations access to physical activity, by doing it in a way that causes the demographic it is supposed to appeal to reject it, it shows that the poor planning and negative opinion of the plan is shared by everyone.