09-25-2024 Primetime - Flipbook - Page 6
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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, September 25, 2024
HEALTH
Eliminating ageism
Reframing how we view
and talk about older adults
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
“
Stop Calling Me ‘Young Lady’ When I’m Obviously Over 60,” is the title of an
article in Medium, by Joyce O’Day, a self-described “Progressively minded
retired world history teacher living every day on holiday.” Its subhead reads,
“Your attempt to be ‘cute’ or ‘friendly’ is insulting.”
She’s not the only one that feels that
way. After all, the baby boomer generation
is thriving and growing; 10,000 people a
day are turning 65 years old for the next
six to eight years, half of them are women,
and none of them like that expression.
Can you see someone calling a male
“Young Lad?”
O’Day’s post points out the fallacy. “I
am NOT flattered when someone – young
or old – calls me a ‘Young Lady’ when I
am clearly part of the AARP crowd. Lately,
it is the fifty-something, old-man security guard at my local grocery store who
keeps greeting me as ‘Young Lady,’ and I
am not amused.”
Neither are those who attended a
seminar on Reframing Aging presented by
Patricia D’Antonio of the Gerontological
Society of America. No one wants to be
disrespected, male or female. Nor do they
want to be infantilized, treated like a child
who may not be capable of self-care. But
to those of us considered older adults,
this is ageism.
D’Antonio heads up the National
Center to Reframe Aging (www.reframingaging.org), part of the GSA. “Our goals
for the NCRA are to help people tell the
more complete story of aging, starting
with how we tell the story and to whom.
“We all age differently,” D’Antonio continues. “And we work to avoid judgment
comments like ‘aging well.’ It doesn’t
require a remark. We are just as prejudiced as those we criticize as being ageist. For instance, we hear ageism remarks
all the time, and we are guilty of perpetrat-
ing it. How often have you commented
that someone is too young? That’s what
we need to change.
“We also ignore contributions older
people make that improve our lives, but
we maintain our misconceptions, our
biases about aging. We may not realize
they are there, but they are part of us.
Often, people comment that every person
is declining, or, there is the narrative of the
super senior, ‘able to leap tall buildings in
a single bound.’”
Where would you put Warren Buffet,
a spry 93-year-old, who is still running
Berkshire Hathaway and is, at last count,
the 10th richest man in the world? Would
you recommend he retire because he’s no
longer capable of doing his job? I hope
not. His vice chairman, Charlie Munger,
died in 2023 at the age of 99. Can you
imagine denigrating or dissing either of
them for “being old.” This is when you
look at people as unique individuals and
stop making generalizations.
What many people don’t notice is how
diverse those over 65 are despite being
lumped together. Too often the media
imply that once you hit that age, you have
one foot in the grave. That’s very far from
the truth. Are there some who are really
old? Yes. But just as many remain actively
involved, still working, still employed (or
volunteering), still lively, still busy, still
pretty healthy.
As D’Antonio spoke, she reminded me
of a birthday card I bought for my mother:
a beautiful woman with white hair wearing
a conical party hat, sitting behind a cake
with oh so many flickering lights. Then
you read the greeting or, in this case, the
punch line: “Everyone looks better by
candlelight.” Thanks, Hallmark, for perpetuating ageism.
Ageism, like other-isms, MirriamWebster’s 2015 word of the year, can be
“an oppressive and especially discriminatory attitude or belief that harm the people
they are about,” such as racism or sexism
or antisemitism, or, alternatively, a doctrine like Buddhism or socialism.
GSA is not the only organization fighting ageism. It leads the work of 10 CEOs
