Is age in the head?

Lately, both in discussions among friends and in the public square, there have been a lot of heated discussions on issues relating to age. There was this article from The Press^⁠1 on perceived age. It confirmed that after the age of 40, we tend to consider ourselves 20% younger, and that 80-year-olds think they are barely 65! Several speakers affirmed that we “are the age we feel”.

We also talked about age because of Joe Biden. The American president was called a senile 81-year-old father. Prosecutor Robert Hur, after admitting that he had no grounds to accuse him of having kept secret documents from the time he was vice-president of the United States, discusses Biden’s bad memory, his responses painfully slow. He calls him a friendly chap, crystallizing in popular opinion the impression that despite the only five years separating the two presidential candidates, one is too old and the other, dashing, in the prime of life. .

On the radio, Pénélope McQuade recently devoted a segment of her show to the “nold” phenomenon, a contraction of never old^⁠2. The “nold” are 45-65 year olds who consider themselves too old to be young, but too young to be old. It’s Generation X’s version of marketing, but it hits a nerve. Many of us feel concerned, stuck in this happy limbo, and denying the reality of the age that is coming…

Questions about age abound, and I don’t mind. Age concerns me.

Personally, on a light note: how does a woman at my age dress? We also dedicated an episode of the show Everyone gets dressedat Télé-Québec, to the question of age, and the reflections are fascinating^⁠3.

Professionally: in TV, we ask producers to design shows for 25-45 year olds. This group is driving broadcasters crazy. He is far from homogeneous, he no longer watches traditional TV, and less and less local content. How to interest them?

Socially: I live in this society where, during the pandemic, there was a fatal abandonment of seniors in CHSLDs. I think about it often, because it tells us something very violent about our attitude towards the elderly and aging.

There is the spirit of the times. For 10 years, it must be admitted, questions concerning age have been more discussed. Janette Bertrand dared to name the rampant ageism in our beautiful and caring society. Actresses, presenters and prominent women are increasingly talking about the fact that they are excluded from certain roles or positions at the age of 50.

Baby boomers who are aging massively have started to question the status quo and do not want to age invisible. Yes, examples of issues linked to age and aging abound, against a backdrop of growing dissatisfaction.

In fact, the social conversation around aging is at the confluence of two issues: being old and being of the times.

Being old, we know, we have seen, is very relative: as late as possible in the minds of seniors, and already in the eyes of the youngest. Being of your time is another matter! There are some very relevant old people, with indisputable acuity at 85 years old. Just as Biden and Trump are OF THEIR TIME. They MAKE it, define it, literally.

At the same time, we are witnessing an acceleration in the passage of generations. The X’s barely had their time as the millennials landed on the public stage. But these Y’s are already being followed by the Z’s, while the Alpha’s are swarming behind… By dint of exploiting ever shorter generations, we are all condemning ourselves to the predictable ejection seat. And to the strict glorification of youth… eternally replaceable.

And what about the fear that haunts everyone: that of being “past date”. This is the question asked on social networks by Denis Coderre, eager to return to politics. Obviously, the answer satisfied him. But we can be over at 60 as at 47. And completely relevant at 99 – I always think of the sociologist Guy Rocher. Being “past date” is not a question of age, but of adequacy, of being able to properly gauge the issues of one’s time.

We are experiencing a formidable paradox.

Our society glorifies the longevity of the elderly and advocates Mediterranean, Japanese or other diets, which will take you over the 100-year mark. Medicine prides itself on being able to soon push the human machine up to 120 years old. At the same time, we make you disappear socially upon retirement, we make aging women invisible, and, OK boomerwe collectively despise white heads.

Seriously: who wants to grow old in a society that, in effect, ostracizes everything that is memory and experience? The social hypocrisy is total.

Biden and Trump are old!

60 is the new 50, which is the new 35!

Age is in the head!

All right. Or not. But if it’s not just in the head, it’s also everywhere in society. And there we can all do something about it.

1. Read our file “How old do you think you are?” »

2. Listen to the segment on the “nold” at Penelopeon OHdio

3. Watch an episode of the show Everyone gets dressed, from Télé-Québec

What do you think ? Participate in the dialogue