Ageing - not tooo cosy

Google ‘most beautiful people’ and one thing you won’t see is old faces. Lots and lots of gorgeous, young faces.

It’s estimated $331.41 billion will be spent on cosmetic improvements to look younger in 2021.

In part, it’s because our society is a bit afraid of ageing.

We don’t like the look of it.

 We think ageing is all about everything going downhill; getting closer and closer to death. We don’t want to think about death. We’d rather be immortal and always at our most gorgeous and fit.

 One of the things we do to cope with this fear is to try and reframe ageing to be more cosy. We talk about older Australians being ‘sweet’, ‘cute’, ‘adorable’, ‘lively’, ‘alert’. They’re sort of ‘doddering but dear’.

 The problem is that pretty well anyone who’s ever had (or talked about) a baby uses the same language to describe the baby.

 That’s a bit of a problem.

 The impact of being talked to like you’re a baby is predictably dire. It kills your self-esteem and people start making decisions for you and doing things to you.

 Like an overly sweet dessert, our language to describe older people can erode their independence.

 Of course we admire beauty and the strong, fit, healthy bodies of youth! Of course the ageing process is not always super pretty. But we have to be super careful about using the same language for older people as we do babies.