This paper is concerned with the issue of ageism and its salience in current debates about the COVID-19 pandemic. In it, we address the question of how best to interpret the impact that the pandemic has had on the older population. While many feel angry at what they see as discriminatory lock-down practices confining older people to their homes, others are equally concerned by the failure of state responses to protect and preserve the health of older people, especially those receiving long-term care. This contrast in framing ageist responses to the pandemic, we suggest, arises from differing social representations of later life, reflecting the selective foregrounding of third versus fourth age imaginaries. Recognising the tension between social and biological parameters of ageing and its social categorisations, we suggest, may offer a more measured, as well as a less discriminatory, approach to addressing the selective use of chronological age as a line of demarcation within society.

中文翻译：

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第四年龄主义：真实和假想的老年

在当前有关COVID-19大流行的辩论中，本文关注的是年龄歧视问题及其重要性。在其中，我们提出了一个问题，即如何最好地解释大流行对老年人口的影响。尽管许多人对他们认为歧视性的禁闭措施将老年人限制在自己的家中感到愤怒，但其他人同样担心国家未能采取措施保护和维护老年人，特别是那些受到长期照料的老年人的健康。我们建议，这种将老年主义者对这种流行病做出反应的框架形成对比，是由于晚年生活的不同社会表现形式引起的，反映了第三和第四年龄假想的选择前景。认识到衰老的社会和生物学参数与其社会分类之间的矛盾，我们建议，