From invisible to extraordinary: Representations of older LGBTQ persons in Canadian print and online news media

Being Called “Elderly” Impacts Adult Development: A Critical Analysis of Enduring Ageism During COVID in NZ Online News Media

“…Research about media depictions of aging clearly demonstrates that older adults are under-represented and frequently absent in typical media forms like advertising (Ylänne, 2021 ), television, film, and print (Edström, 2018 ; Hurd et al, 2020 ). Studies purely focused on news articles, although rare, are more emerging (Hurd et al, 2020 ; Koskinen et al, 2014 ; Kovács et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Research about media depictions of aging clearly demonstrates that older adults are under-represented and frequently absent in typical media forms like advertising (Ylänne, 2021 ), television, film, and print (Edström, 2018 ; Hurd et al, 2020 ). Studies purely focused on news articles, although rare, are more emerging (Hurd et al, 2020 ; Koskinen et al, 2014 ; Kovács et al, 2021 ). In both non-western and western countries, representation proportions of older adults in news media and commercials are dramatically less than actual population numbers (Edström, 2018 ; Prieler et al, 2016 ).…”

Centering sexual and gender diversity within Compassionate Communities: insights from a community network of LGBTQ2S+ older adults

“…At the same time, however, this focus risks perpetuating an overly narrow interpretation of the lives of sexual and gender minority people. In a recent analysis of how older LGBTQ2S+ people are represented in Canadian news media, for example, Hurd and colleagues 60 found older LGBTQ2S+ people are depicted in news stories in one of two forms: victims of discrimination and marginalization, or extraordinary and resilient role models. In theorizing the implications of these portrayals, they write that ‘the type casting of older LGBTQ persons into one of two cultural options [victims and success stories], obfuscated, if not denied, the positioning of queer old people as ordinary folk’.…”

“…In theorizing the implications of these portrayals, they write that ‘the type casting of older LGBTQ persons into one of two cultural options [victims and success stories], obfuscated, if not denied, the positioning of queer old people as ordinary folk’. 60 Importantly, in our focus groups, participants did speak about their lives in ways that transcended these two discursive framings, centering the more ‘ordinary’ dimensions of end-of-life experience. Grace told us a story about caring for a friend who was not a romantic partner, and described her negotiating with this friend around whom to include in the caregiving circle.…”

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“…-Sandy, 27 years old Throughout academic and popular discourse, older LGBTQ2IA+ people (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit, intersex, asexual people, and others whose sexual and gender identities do not conform to heterosexual and cisgender norms 1 ) are frequently depicted as vulnerable, isolated, re-closeted, or simply nonexistent (Brown 2009;Hurd et al 2020). 2 In gerontology, a preoccupation with heteronormative vectors of "success" in aging often functions to pathologize older queer and trans lives, with the majority of studies of LGBT aging focused on 1 We use this long acronym, as opposed to LGBT, as a challenge to the erasure of lesser-represented non-normative sexual and gender identities.…”