Dictionary of ageism, when words are not innocent

BarcelonaIt was not until November 2023 that the Dictionary of the Catalan Language of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans admitted the concept of ageism as discrimination based on age. Despite the youth of this term, the formulas and fashions with which it is applied pass from generation to generation and become especially severe with age. psychogerontologist Montse Celdrán has collected fifty of these expressions in the Glossary on ageism that the La Caixa Foundation published two years ago. The booklet is the result of prior work among users of the entity's clubs on the stereotypes surrounding old age, the comments that make them feel bad, and their self-perception. "Language is not innocuous," says Celdrán, who is part of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of Barcelona. The expert also points to the desire to raise awareness and change these discriminatory expressions.

Eduard Ferrer was one of those who collaborated on the glossary with the discussion of the concepts and admits that "above all there was self-ageism," that is, that the older people at the center imposed limits and barriers on themselves because of their age. From the meeting, he says they learned to "be aware" of misplaced infantilizing treatments"You go to the doctor and they say, 'How's it going, Grandpa?' Or at the pool, I heard them say, 'Look at Grandpa, he's swimming,'" explains this pensioner, who says that two years before retiring, he "prepared" himself so that the day after leaving work, he wouldn't find himself without work.

At this point, Celdrán emphasizes that older people are no longer considered adults with their own paths and opinions, but are instead treated with diminutives that, although they can be expressed in an affectionate tone, should be understood as a sign of superiority. Examples of ageism include addressing an unknown older person by name, using the informal "tu" (formal form of "you"), or even using a shortened name, which is a form of discrimination if they haven't been asked if it's okay with them.

On how to make older people smaller

The glossary entries include those that are often used to define older people: forgetful and forgetful, senile, vulnerable, grumpy, or distrustful. The list is long, and with these words "reality is constructed," says Celdrán, who has also included in the glossary manifestations of self-inflicted ageism, which is nothing more than older people's acceptance of the limits and clichés imposed on a given age group as if it were a homogeneous rather than a heterogeneous group. In fact, this homogenization entails speaking of "our elders," "retirees," "third age," or "dependency" to refer to a stage of doing nothing, when in many cases they are proactive both inside and outside the home.

In this section, you can find phrases like "I'm old, but I'm young at heart," an internalized version of the popular "you're still well-preserved for your age," or "I'm too old to be," which defines in the first person the limitations in job offers. For the author, these may sound like "harmless phrases," but for many older people, they're "a kind of self-excuse, a way of justifying why they don't do something or why they're no longer listened to." Ultimately, Celdrán emphasizes, the book is a compendium of how society "associates aging with losing value."

Glossari de l'edatisme

The glossary is intended to be a wake-up call, a tool to "break with the ageist perspective": "When we say 'if you're old, it's normal for your memory to fail,' what we're doing is downplaying a symptom and, in turn, downplaying that person's right to be cared for like any other," the psycho-manager emphasizes. In their work at senior centers, they realized that the expressions they said or felt made them feel bad because "they carry a negative charge, as if aging were a continuous loss," explains Celdrán.

Neither sugarcoating old age nor youth

However, the review is not intended "to sugarcoat old age," because "not all older people are wise or want to be teachers, nor is it intended to hide their dependency." On the contrary, it is about presenting a diverse image of older people, who can be "dependent, but eager to learn or do things," the expert points out. She regrets that it is often mistakenly thought of as a group uninterested in technology or lacking sexual relationships. Aside from age, "gender, culture, and sexual diversity" permeate diversity and help break the homogenizing view.

Therefore, the glossary invites us not only to "review how we speak, but also how we listen." One of the concepts the guide revises is productive aging, which attempts to quantify the social value of older people through hours of volunteering or family care. "The problem is that we only value what can be counted, and not everything an older person contributes has a price or a number," she states.

One of the solutions suggested by Celdrán and other experts on aging is to create spaces that promote "intergenerational contact" to avoid ageism. "Ask and listen," he reflects, as a good way to build relationships between people, to get to know and understand each other. We must stop attributing positive adjectives to young people and negative ones to older people. "The problem isn't the number, the age, but what adjectives each number carries," he concludes.