Recommended Citation
Janet L. Dolgin,
Contrasting Visions of Age: Manifestations of Ageism in Law, Art, and Health Care,
36 Health Matrix
89
(2026)
Available at:
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/healthmatrix/vol36/iss1/2
Abstract
Ageism has befuddled the law’s attempts at remediation. Each “ism” (e.g., sexism, racism) differs from the others. Ageism, however, differs fundamentally from other “isms.” That difference explains the law’s failure to limit it. This article describes the difference, and it explains why that difference has rendered ageism resistant to legal remedies. Legal scholars and gerontologists have asked why the law’s efforts to limit the bias, stigma and discrimination that stem from ageism have largely failed. A remarkable framework for responding to that query derive from literary and artistic depictions of old people over time.
This article has identified shifting visions of old age through examination of textual and artistic depictions of elderly people, particularly in the Medieval and early modern periods as well as in the contemporary world. Medieval and early modern depictions of old age exhibit a striking duality. Old people were envisioned simultaneously through structured oppositions such as good versus evil, impressive versus pathetic, and wise versus foolish. Though the intensity of the contrast has dimmed, modernity continues to view old people through two contrasting lenses. Even today, the contrasting components of the dualist vision of old age lead to cognitive and emotional confusion. Lawmakers’ unsuccessful efforts to control ageism’s harms reveal that confusion.
Those efforts have included the four federal statute expressly aimed at limiting ageism that are reviewed in this article (The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, The Age Discrimination Act of 1975, Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Elder Justice Act of 2010). The article delineates the failure of these laws to achieve their promise and suggests that the longstanding confusion about the mettle of old people has undermined the law’s effectiveness in this domain. However, the aims of these laws should not be abandoned. The article suggests that responding effectively to ageism depends on imbuing society with awareness and understanding of the social presumptions underlying ageism– accurately referred to as the “unseen bias.”