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Why Older People Are Feeling Invisible
By Peggy Stinnett, Oakland Tribune
June 28, 2004
Who do you think they are -- the people you hurriedly pass by -- in your middle-class neighborhood and sometimes begging on downtown streets, avoiding eye contact? It seems there are more of them than there used to be.
They are our aging friends of all races and viewpoints. They are us.
Although a major segment of the population, they feel like invisible people, stripped of the identity that defined them when they were younger.
In America's throwaway culture, it's OK when someone gets too old or difficult to care for to ship them off to a rest home where someone else will take care of them. Obviously, sometimes this is critical to the survival of the family, but how does it feel to be the older person?
Most people don't want to accept that they are getting older, especially when they hear elders called geezers, crips, decrepits and other derogatory references. It's no wonder some are in denial.
All people fear the loss of something they value. As they grow older they face different kinds of loss. And it comes in waves.
Most fear the loss of health and physical strength, their loved ones, their sexuality, physical attractiveness and their identity associated with their lives when they were young and midlife. They want to feel valued.
But there is change in the wind about growing older. The boomers are coming and they're no longer babies. There is also a growing constituency of older men and women (most are women because they live longer) who are doing something about the perceptions of older people in society, especially about how they are depicted in the media.
At a symposium I attended on aging -- organized by Susan Hoffman of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at San Francisco State University -- major issues of aging were examined by a panel of experts. They looked deeply into how older people and aging are viewed in the culture and in the media. What they saw wasn't good.
They found the issues of aging are nearly invisible in the media. Or awkwardly handled if not ridiculed with cutesy treatment. It's not surprising that many elders consider themselves invisible and overlooked even though they are major contributors to the health and wealth of the community.
Paul Kleyman, editor of Aging Today, published by the American Society for Aging, said, "The aging are poorly represented in the media. Although one of four residents is 55 years or older, no newspaper in the Bay Area has a full time reporter on aging." He wondered why the media isn't catching up with the demographics of America.
When he complains to the media, "They come back with, 'Oh, we covered bad nursing homes.'" The savvy audience of seniors laughed.
Covering the issues presents "a complexity of health, housing and relationships," said Kleyman. "What we see in the press is less than the sum."
The media is desperately trying to capture youthful readers, but they are turning to the Internet for news while established older readers make up the bulk of print subscribers.
The consensus of attendees was that the most irritating descriptions of older people in the media are "senior citizens" and "the elderly." It's okay to call them seniors or elders, however. Also annoying is the media's obsession with assigning an age to every person written about in the newspaper, even if it isn't relevant to the story.
Panelist Nicole Sawaya, general manager of KALW, public radio in San Francisco, took off on the lack of government funding for fundamental needs of low income elders. "There's been an erosion of the public safety net that impacts all families."
Sawaya also criticized the advertising of corporations for presenting rosy pictures of elderly people sitting on lanais overlooking a golf course sipping mai tais.
"Owners of media also own advertising agencies, who give press releases to media that are represented as news but are really advertising," said Sawaya.
Margaret Jenkins, an accomplished dancer and author of "Breathe Normally," described the loss felt by an older dancer.
"Dancing is more difficult as the body grows older, it loses its flexibility and endurance. You become too old for certain activity and must deal with the loss. It's like the loss felt by someone's death, or your own approaching death."
In her book Jenkins asks, "What is normal? One wants to move with a body that can no longer do it, so how do you do that? How do you let go of something that defines you?"
Bring on the aging boomers. There is hope they can change things for the older population -- not their losses -- but at least a public attitude toward them that's respectful but not patronizing or condescending.
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