Woman ‘emotionally battered’

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 10

Woman ‘emotionally battered’

By

NICHOLAS KATSARELA,

of the Associated Press (through NZPA) New York Patricia Moore went undercover in 1979 as a woman, aged 85, and hoped to find what it was like to be elderly in the United States.

She says she emerged from her grey wig and wrinkled makeup three

years later, physically scarred, emotionally battered, incredulous at the way she was treated and determined to alter the way the American people view the elderly.

Ms Moore, aged 33, says the elderly are portrayed as “slow, poor, wrinkled, (with) snow on their rooftops, cranky, crotchety and doddering.” She says they are lovable, adorable

and bake chocolate chip cookies. “Disguised: A True Story,” a book about about her experience, has been released and this week she took her message to

the Gerontology Institute of New Jersey. “This is a Darwinian society, survival of the fittest,” said Ms Moore. “If you are not fit, get out of the way.” Age bias is widespread

in the United States, she said. Only by a dramatic change in attitudes and the erosion of stereotypes can the elderly begin to be treated fairly. She chose a grey wig and makeup, plugged her ears, wore semi-opaque glasses, put splints on her legs to restrict her movement and wore clothing to create three elderly characters — a shopping-bag lady, a middle-income woman, and a dowager. Ms Moore said she travelled to 14 states, walked the streets of more than 100 cities, ate at restaurants, lived in motels and hotels and visited convalescent homes. Everywhere she encountered people who would not open doors for her, restaurateurs who ignored her, transportation systems that did not accommodate the elderly and shop owners who shortchanged her. She was mugged twice in New York, she said. The first time, she was knocked unconscious and her purse was stolen. The second time, she was attacked by a gang of youths who severely beat her.