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The Aging Experience: A Challenge With Choices
| Article
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13869 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1988 |
5,027 Words |
| Author
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Ellen Rhoads Holmes
Ellen Rhoads Holmes, an anthropologist with a major interest
in aging experience in other cultures, is assistant professor
of health, administration, and gerontology and academic
coordinator of the gerontology program at Wichita State
University. |
More Americans than ever are part of the group variably referred to as the aged, elderly, old, senior citizens, or golden-agers. Whatever the preferred label, many of these people now live well beyond what the current life expectancy figures predict. One of the most rapidly increasing age groups is that composed of people over the age of 75. As a result, it is now quite common to hear references to the "young-old" and the "old-old," in an attempt to more accurately characterize this large, diverse group. This new long-life phenomenon is both good news and bad news. The good news is that we and our children and grandchildren can look forward to more years, and in most cases healthier years, than previous generations. The bad news is that we will be experiencing aging and old age in a society that has an abundance of negative views about age. Growing old and being old in the United States thus present a special challenge to all of us. The objective of this article is to consider briefly what we have working against us as we age, and to offer some suggestions for shifting the odds in our favor.
We live in a very youth-oriented society. No one seems to want to be old in America. We resist and deny that we are aging, sometimes refusing to tell our age or lying about it. Once we pass the 30-year mark, probably very few of us are displeased by being mistaken for being younger than we really are. Pediatrics is a much more popular medical specialty than geriatrics, at least partly because children respond more rapidly to treatment and recover more frequently. Older people present more troublesome chronic problems. The youth of our country are seen as the hope of the future, and this time dimension is of more interest to us than the past. This is clearly unfavorable to the old, who have less of a future and a great deal more knowledge of past history.
One has only to look at the advertising campaigns for a vast array of products to note that youth is equated with beauty or good looks, sexual desirability, and energy. The messages seem to be that if we buy and use the right creams, lotions, and shampoos, eat certain foods, drink brand "X" beverages, our youthful attributes will be retained. The ads for cosmetic products more blatantly play on our fear of aging, but the general trend has been to depict attractive, young adults in the majority of media ads.
Older people are not entirely absent from advertising, but they are clearly underrepresented relative to their proportion in the population and their potential buying power. When they do appear, they often reinforce stereotypes and may be depicted as amusing or silly.
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