Who the hell are you calling a senior citizen!? Call me seasoned, call me fun, call me positive, call me friendly, but for the love of God, DON’T you dare label me a senior citizen! The term ‘senior’ is a cuss word in my book! Ageist labels like ‘senior citizen’ perpetuate the idea that old is feeble.
A cane, walker, wheelchair, nursing home, and adult diapers immediately spring to mind when you hear the term ‘senior citizen’ in American society. Western culture does not honor folks who have lived more than half a century, instead, aging is depicted negatively. On these shores, we are not placed on pedestals, the aging process is not celebrated, and elders are not venerated. We are seen as people who are losing value with each passing year. In places like Africa, Asia, and Greece, elders are highly respected and central to a family.
I’m not accepting the term ‘senior citizen!’ Nope, not me!
In our culture, 20 to 30-year-olds are young adults. When you reach your 40s to 50s you are middle-aged. Ages 60 to 70 are considered seniors, and 80-plus folks are referred to as elderly. Instead of the label ‘elderly,’ why not use ‘elder’ which is less offensive and more apropos!
What is a senior anyway?
When you are about to turn 50, you begin receiving those annoying invitations to join AARP. There are discounts and perks offered to those who are 55 and over. I don’t want to be placed in a silver box with a group of people, who are given paltry discounts, and then swept aside!
And speaking of being swept aside, advertisers are our biggest offenders because as soon as we turn 50, we fade-to-black in their eyes. Advertisers believe that the TV viewing audience is forever young. As far as marketing, the focus is on consumers ages 18 to 49. Well, FYI ya’ll, seasoned folks are now significant players in the economy and our role will get even bigger in the 2020s.
Since older people tend to have both high incomes compared to younger cohorts (especially in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, thanks to older-age pensions) and high needs (if only on account of medical and specialized care), we are major consumers. Seasoned folks are also growing rapidly in numbers: There are currently 750 million of us in the world, and that figure will cross the 1 billion mark by 2030. We are now significant players in the economy and our role will get even bigger in the 2020s. We are the wealthiest age cohort in the world, together with older professionals (45-64 years).
Today’s olders are seeking meaning, purpose, and are looking to disrupt the retirement norms to express an increasing interest in lifelong work and volunteering.
Yet advertisers just don’t get it. And they are foolishly missing out on a huge untapped market.
American society is so influenced by advertisers who continue to devalue by featuring us in a state of decline and deterioration. We have been indoctrinated with images of older folks as hunched-drooling-at-the-mouth-Depends-wearin’-rocking-chair–sitting-frail individuals. We are nothing like our great-grandparents or even our grandparents. We move, we strut, we sway, we sashay, we’ve got swag. Many of us just don’t feel old; we feel wise with many seasons under our belt. We have journeyed through and survived the various challenges of life.
We are living longer than any previous generation because we are healthier. We don’t need the mental midgets on Madison Avenue to patronize us with annoying aging reminders like denture adhesives, arthritis ointments, or incontinence cure-alls.
We know the deal!
Aging is inevitable; however, it’s time for a rebranding. Searching the Internet there were more preferred labels like olders (not too bad), people-of-a-certain-age (better), the wise (most of us), seasoned, ageless, vintage. The label for aging that I connected with most was perennials. Perennials aren’t guaranteed to blossom year-after-year, however, with care, good rich soil, and nutrients, they can live on and on.
We are perennials who are taking better care of our physical and mental selves, eating right, exercising more, and getting lots of sunshine, so that we can keep coming back better than ever year-after-year.
My name is Karen Halliburton, and I am a perennial!
