Abstract
Youth/old age is one of the many binaries that structure human life, thereby positioning the first-named half of the semantic pair as socially desirable and positively valenced and the second-named half as deficient and negative, even deviant (Midgley, Tyler, Danaher, & Mander, 2011). This positioning is manifested in the routinely circulated stereotypes – certainly in many Western societies – of older people as being at risk and vulnerable and as needing protection from harm, as well as being less efficient and productive than their younger counterparts (Danaher, Cook, Danaher, Coombes, & Danaher, 2013); Galpin, 2010; Peri, Fanslow, Hand, & Parsons, 2009; Robinson, Gustafson, & Popovich, 2008).