ABOUT THE BOOK 

Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto starts with what it is not: it is not a socio- economic argument against ageism, celebrating “the elderly” as economically viable. Author Simon(e) van Saarloos is not interested in natural arguments about age, which portray different age groups as valuable because of assumed inherent qualities. Instead, this manifesto starts with an experience of childhood sexual abuse, and moves on to dissect the ways in which constructions of “age” and “youth” function to support and reproduce white supremacist patriarchy. Engaging with age and time in relation to crip and queer theory, anti-carceral approaches to harm and colonial notions of linear time, Against Ageism calls to abolish the legal age of consent, as well as age related voting rights.

 

Simon(e) van Saarloos is the author of Playing Monogamy, Take ‘Em Down. Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting and Against Ageism. A Queer Manifesto. They also write fiction. Recent productions include the short sci-fi story “Dreamdead Surrender” (Postmodern Culture Journal) and De Foetushemel, a theater play about abortion and violent resistance for Ulrike Quade Company at Bellevue Theater Amsterdam. Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations. Recent projects include the installation Cruising Gezi Park, the spread of a mo(nu)ment, IDFA’s  2022’s queer day Not Yet Yes, the 2023 lecture series Juicy Refuge at Rietveld Academy’s Studium Generale, multi-year transnational queer community, nightlife and art project Through the Window, and the ABUNDANCE exhibition at Het HEM. They currently pursue a PhD in Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley.