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Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto του Simon(e) van Saarloos.
Hyper Hypo and Self Publish Be Happy invite you to a book launch and discussion for Against Ageism: A Queer Manifesto by Simon(e) van Saarloos. The author will be here to discuss their work in conversation with Andreas Angelidakis (artist, writer, curator, architect and father of Lupo) and Vassilia Kaga (curator/performer and daddy of cyber doggi).
The talk will be held in English.
Simon(e) van Saarloos confronts the ways concepts of age and youth are used to uphold white supremacist patriarchy, offering a bold and necessary critique of societal structures.
The author blends academic insight with personal reflection, offering a fresh, accessible approach to understanding and dismantling ageism which appeals to both scholars and readers seeking personal and collective empowerment.
A few words about the book
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.
SIMON(E) VAN SAARLOOS is a writer and curator. They are the author of Take ‘Em Down: Scattered Monuments and Queer Forgetting (2021) and Playing Monogamy (2019), as well as several books in Dutch. They also write fiction and theatre. Van Saarloos works as an independent curator of public programming and artistic collaborations, such as the queer programming for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and ‘The Non-Monogamy Letters’ with Kim TallBear at ArtsEverywhere.ca.
