Discriminaging. Discourses of health discrimination based on age

Abstract

This special issue of Journal of Language and Discrimination brings together research on how people can be and are discriminated in the health and medical fields based on their age, and how such bias emerges linguistically from the discourse(s) expressing or surrounding it. Ages which see frequent and common singling out, for both objective and subjective reasons, are the old and the younger (children, adolescents) periods in life. The term 'ageism' is often associated with discrimination against older people (Phelan 2018), due to the prevailing contemporary exaltation of youth, productivity, individuality, typical of Western cultures (Bellini forthcoming 2022). However, there may be cases in which other life stages are singled out, whether in a negative or a positive light. For instance, the so-called middle age and the adult age in general are not normally considered socially weak moments in a person's life and, as such, are ignored and therefore automatically suffer from exclusion from consideration. One may want to think of entrance tickets to facilities and attractions, where children, seniors and other categories are entitled to discounts, but all the rest fall within the 'adults' group, who may only get reduced tickets based on, e.g., disability or low income, in both cases in relation to their economic (im)productivity. Positive discrimination may be incurred, on the other hand, by pregnant women, while the move from the fertile to the infertile Affiliation