Simon(e) van Saarloos & Mijke van der Drift : ‘Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto’ [Talk]

 Simon(e) van Saarloos will be in conversation with Mijke van der Drift at the Royal College of Art, to discuss Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto. Drawing on crip and queer theory, as well as anti-carceral and anti-colonial perspectives on time, this piercing text presents a radical critique of conventional arguments against ageism, drawing on crip and queer theory, and anti-carceral and anti-colonial perspectives.  

Tuesday 10 June 
17:00–19:00

Royal College of Art 
Gorvy Theatre 
Dyson Building
Battersea Campus, 1 Hester Road
SW11 4AN

About Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto 

Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto starts with what it is not: a socio-economic argument against ageism, celebrating the ‘elderly’ as economically viable. Instead, Simon(e) van Saarloos presents a radical critique of conventional arguments against ageism, rejecting constructs of ‘age’ and ‘youth’ and assumptions of their inherent qualities. 

Drawing from personal experience, the manifesto offers a reckoning with how ageism overlaps with structures of white supremacy and patriarchy. Through the lens of crip and queer theory, as well as anti-carceral and anti-colonial perspectives on time, this piercing text provocatively calls for the abolition of age-related laws, reframing commonly held understandings about age from van Saarloos’s defiant perspective.