How dare you call me elderly!
What do you call an older person?
Even wording the question is tricky. But we learned this week on The 180 that Canadians have a lot of different definitions for words like "old," "elderly," and "senior."
Just call me "old"
Steve Thornton, for example, would rather people skip the euphemisms: "If you're going to refer to somebody by their age, you might as well just be straightforward about it and call them old. I don't see anything wrong with being old."
"Elderly" should be a term of respect, not code for "frail"
According to Jeff Calvert, we've got the meaning of elderly wrong: "When I think of elderly people, I think of people who are wise, and to be respected. I think we're using the world elderly when what we really mean to say, but don't want to say because we're a little bit too polite, is 'frail.' And I think that that's probably a mistake."
"Senior" recognizes our accomplishments
And then there's senior. Rosemary Walton says: "I think the word senior should be people who are looked up to, who have a senior position in the world. Like we think of a Senior Executive, or a Senior Partner in a business. I think we should see seniors as people who have achieved, and risen above, the rest of us."
So where does that leave us?
Gerontologists divide "older adults" into four categories, by age:
- 65 to 74 is "young old"
- 75 to 84 is "middle old"
- 85 to 99 is "older old"
- 100+ is "very old"
People seemed to approve of the terms "senior" and "old age," when followed by the words "discount" and "pension." For the most part, everyone we heard from agreed that "elderly" should be reserved for people who are frail with diminishing faculties, and not used automatically for anyone over, say, 65.
And, they say, the tendency to use words like "elderly" without consideration, indicate an aspect of ageism.
But Gloria Gutman, a gerontologist at Simon Fraser University, admits that ageism is beginning to fade, in part because as famous baby boomers enter their senior years, they're not stepping out of the spotlight.
"Just look at some of the stars that are still around: The Rolling Stones, or Tina Turner ... Dolly Parton was on television last night. They don't call Dolly Parton old!"
(In case you missed Dolly's last birthday: she's 70.)
The academic answer might clear things up
As more and more Canadians pass 65, it may be helpful to use gerontology terminology to describe them.
The common overarching term, Gutman says, is "older adults." And then it gets more specific.
"You know, gerontologists talk about the 'young old,' the 'middle old,' the 'older old,' and the 'very old.' So, the 'young old' would be 65 to 74, 'middle old' is 75 to 84, 'older old' is 85 and over, and then the 'very old' are centenarians."