Age prejudice. How can we counter it? Is it real,or paranoia?
 

I didn't think age prejudice existed when I was younger. I do not think it is prevalent but it does occur.

I don't like judging whole groups of people and dismissing them. It isn't fair based on any criteria.

Do you see and feel age prejudice in real life or on this forum? How old are you?

I can't believe it but I am 79.

I don't know how it happened but I am a month or two away from 79!
Anyway, I don't really feel any age discrimination in my life. We experience more fascination by younger people....they wonder how we do all that we do.
Yes, sure we may walk slower, drive a little slower.......but that's only in the bubble. When in Boston we drive faster, walk faster......it's survival of the fittest in the outside world!
I will admit we do have a granddaughter who calls us "the oldies".

One strange thing to me is the existence of some clubs here in The Villages that have age limits. Does anyone else think that is right...…….or wrong?

On another thread there was a "dude" who pointed out that there was some evidence of Villages and amenities nearby that were related to the predominant age of the people who lived close to them, both the lack of amenities and those not used as much. Any thoughts? Do you think that is economic or age related or neither or both??

I think it is possibly both. I know that almost everyone, regardless of their age are anxious to go to the squares at first and do it a lot the first couple of years and then it wanes as other activities replace this fun social thing to do. People make friends and share other activities rather than dancing and listening to music with them.

Well, I am now 77 years of age. What I recall is I needed to be six years old by the end of the calendar year to enter first grade, could obtain a driver's license at age 16, became eligible for the draft and had to register at age 18, could drink alcohol legally at age 21 in the the state where I resided at the time, became eligible to vote at age 21, obtained medicare at age 65 and so on. Oh, and I became "legal" to buy a home in a 55 and over community at...surprise...age 55! Were these requirements, 'age prejudice'?

Gee, so much in life is age related!

For me, life has been a journey through several phases. After becoming an 'official' adult at age 21 the phases have pretty much been decade by decade. In general during my twenties people expected me to conduct myself as a man in his twenties and I suppose I did. Similarly during my thirties, forties and so on my life played out on an age related path.

Our bodies and our brains grow, mature and decline with age. That is the way it is. Yes, people treat me differently at age 77 than they did at age 17, 27 or even 57, as they should. I accept my age. I take care of myself physically, mentally and spiritually and live in the present without resentment.

I do not feel people treating me as a 77 year old is 'age prejudice'. I would not want to fly on a commercial airliner captained by a 77 year old. Too, I am willing to get my eyes checked and submit to written and road driving tests to retain my driver's license when necessary.

Boy, you guys are old!
😉
Steve

I did feel age discrimination a few years ago, when a younger (60ish) member of a club I belonged to,
offered to do a slightly physically demanding task for me.
And I graciously accepted his help!
I realized then, that I had entered senior hood, and there is such a thing as positive discrimination!

Feel the same way about any prejudice.....it is stupid.

Skin, religion, ethnic origin, age.......it is plain stupid.

I will be 80 in June....never ever experienced, even once, age prejudice, and frankly not sure how to identify it if it did occur.

Folks who have any prejudice are mean spirited, hateful and obviously not very smart. If that sounds harsh, it is meant to be, because there are no sound reasons for "prejudice"

If I am excluded because of age, it better have something to do with my safety

Not sure why this is worthy of discussion......would prefer instead of trying to isolate yet another group, that concentration might be on REAL LIFE instead of perceived slights.

Age to me means absolute unconditional love. What I remember about my grandmother is not her beautiful manicure, I can’t remember her nails. Nor her beautiful hair do, her hair turned white at 20 when she was hiding from the bombs with her cat. She never colored it, never cut it. It was a silky silvery mane, whenever I saw her. She never mentioned her croquet score etc. What I remember about her is that when I went to visit her at 18 years old, she wanted to sleep by the train tracks so she would not miss a minute seeing me and I was arriving by train. When I got there she went to the market a mile and a half away at 4:00 am every morning to get fresh baguette for my breakfast. When I tried to stop her from doing everything for me it was not possible. After I left to see my other grandmother in a different country, she had to stay in bed to recover for two weeks.

An intelligent, well thought out...and dead-on post! :thumbup:

It's obvious that age often affects some of us...a lot different than others.

Some become more wise and tolerant.

Some become meaner and more devious.

Some imagine slights and use any excuse...to exhibit their own prejudices.

Some decide they're tired of pretending to be nice, and by golly, are going to finally speak up about how they really feel, ignoring those societal pressures/norms which have dictated until now...that they keep it to themselves.

And some dwell, focus and are petrified that we are all mortal and...on the last few holes of life.

And sadly, some fight that horrible, irreversible and debilitating disease (to one degree or another)...of dementia/Alzheimer's. :(

For me, it's being thankful for each additional day and living my life so that should it end tomorrow (or during my nap today :D)...I'll be going out with very few regrets. :ho:

79 is the new 69. We live in such an active community that keeps us young. We take better care of ourselves and have better healthcare. We look better. Maybe it keeps the age discriminators at bay.

I don't feel any age prejudice (I'm 71, the new 61 :icon_wink:), but we are living with a mostly like-age group. I haven't spent much time in large, busy age-diverse cities lately. Maybe it would be different there. People rushing down the sidewalk to get to work, jockeying for seats on buses & metros... that kind of thing.

I do miss being in a mixed-age group sometimes, but I think TV is the right place to "age out," and I for one haven't experienced any age prejudice.

Being 34, unemployed and living in my parents basement here in The Villages...I always try to show respect for my elders.




:1rotfl:

Your parents have a basement?????!!

... lol

Of course, doesn't everyone in TV have one?



:D

55 and over communities are by their very nature age discriminatory. Housing for Older Persons Act - Wikipedia The idea is to provide a peaceful and safe environment where senior citizens can live away from young whippersnappers who are so loud, stay up late, drive too fast and cause so much commotion and crime.

Yeah that was me until 2 years ago when I turned 55. I was loud, drove too fast, stayed up late, and caused commotion and crime.

Now I just drive too fast and stay up late. Maybe a little mayhem now and then. But I'm not young, dammit, and I have earned the right to say "GET OFF MY LAWN!"

LOL. I can relate. I have gone from being Dennis to becoming Mr. Wilson.

60 may be the new 40 :a040: :coolsmiley: ,
but 9 PM is the new Midnight :faint:.

The topic of this thread is Age Prejudice. Please return to that topic. Further off topic posts will be removed.

Moderator

Good one!

I have friends who are in their late 50's/early 60's who are very highly educated, intelligent, and experienced professionals who can't find work. One is an extremely smart mechanical engineer who is totally sick of being rejected for jobs by much younger and less experienced people. One the other hand, I went golfing last week up North, and for the first time in my life, I got the senior citizen greens fee rate, I saved $9 and rather enjoyed it. And yes, people used to call me dude, now they call me sir. I prefer dude, but I guess dudes don't have very thin gray hair?

Even the movies discriminate on age. Did anyone else ever pass as a child, or try to do so, after one reached the age of having to purchase an adult ticket?

When I had reached 55, the age of being entitled to a senior discount at the movies locally, I was single and dating. I used to never ask for a senior discount on a date so I would not appear cheap or 'old'. At age 56 I had started to date a 37 year old woman who I took to the movies. She knew how old I was, at the box office teased me about it, and insisted I ask for a senior ticket, which I did. Although we only dated a couple years we remain friends and get together from time to time. When she turned 55 I took her to the movies and bought her a senior ticket! Yes, she had to show her ID to get it!

I don't get carded when I buy a drink anymore, because people think I'm too old-looking to be under 21. And yet, they won't give me a senior discount at the supermarket because they say I have to be 60, and I don't look old enough to qualify.

When I applied for a desk job last year (before we knew we'd be moving to Florida), the interviewer asked me if I expected to need time off to take care of grandchildren. That one really took me by surprise. I totally didn't see that coming. The answer was no, but I felt resentful that he put me in a position where I'd have to either answer it, or explain why I refused to answer it.

The first time I went on a date to the movies, the guy that took me went to the window and said: "one adult, and one child". Being 18, I was totally offended. I ended up marrying the cheap jerk anyway. Didn't last.
I wouldn't think that here in TV, you would meet up with much age discrimination because of the demographics. (There's that word again!) Except maybe against younger people. For example, even though my hard-working daughter is a resident, she can't swim in most of the pools, because she is under 30.

Interesting perspective...thanks for sharing. :thumbup:

I have not noticed any age discrimination here. People are people everywhere you go, some you like, some you don't, age has not been a factor in that for us. I do remember many many years ago when we bought our first house our neighbors were an extremely attractive older couple and I used to envy them because they were having so much fun on their side of the 6ft privacy fence, every Friday night in the summer they would have friends visit for wine and cheese while I was putting young children to bed!!!

You ask a 19 or 20 year old and many would tell you “I can serve my country and be shot at in Iraq but can’t have a beer in this great country of ours”. I got bad news for you Son, soon you will have to be 21 in order to light up a cigarette. Discrimination? I can vaguely remember when in my State a female age 18 could drink but a male had to be 21. Discrimination? Because I was just short of 21 years of age, my mother had to actually sign for me to get married but my wife, now of over 50 years, who was barely 18 , and just graduated from H.S., could sign for herself. Over the years, we both have laughed about that! I’ve said all that to say this. Now that I’m older, I really don’t feel discriminated against - - I get discounts in many places and since I’m older I feel entitled. Isn’t this a great Country or what?

I can't understand the logic of allowing 18 year olds to serve their country and vote, but not be able to legally drink. If you are old enough to be able to determine who our elected officials are and carry a loaded firearm, why aren't you old enough to drink? To further the point, an 18 year old committing a crime is tried as an adult. So if you are considered an adult, why can't you make the decision to drink or not? I hate double standards. To make it worse, the dominate political party in my home state up north is pushing to lower the voting age to 16?

Discriminate and it's other forms seem to be more used as a negative.
Much of our daily lives function with discrimination.

Refresher on the meaning of discrimination:

Discriminate | Definition of Discriminate by Merriam-Webster

Yeah that's why it threw me for a loop. I knew if I pointed out to him that it was against the law for him to ask the question, I wouldn't get the job. If I answered it "yes I'll need time off on occasion to take care of the grandkids" I wouldn't get the job. If I told him I didn't have grandkids, and it was a guy who felt it was a woman's duty to give birth to fertile, child-bearable progenies, I wouldn't get the job. If he was fishing to find out how old I was and I said "not yet" I might not get the job. No matter how I answered the question, I was risking being out of a job. And the question was illegal to ask, as you said.

That was the moment I decided I didn't want to work there. Who would want to work for someone who is either a) ignorant of the laws preventing him from asking questions like that or b) knowledgeable but willing to break the laws to get the "right" employee?

YEP...dead on.

If they saw no problem with asking those types of illegal questions in the interview, you can guarantee they had no problems trying to short-shrift or sharpshooting employees...once you were hired. :oops:

Good move in saying 'bye-bye'...to those types of dinosaurs.

I would also bet, their turnover rate...was multiples of the average for their industry. :ohdear:

The most obvious forms of discrimination /prejudice are the ones advertised.

Senior discount

Ladies night


Never knew how they still get away with it.

The old woman are the ones with the money.

If anything they should pay a surcharge.[emoji16]

Prejudice
 

The word is truly simple. Pre meaning before. Judice meaning judgement. In reality we are all guilty. It is a survival skill.

In your reported tale your prejudice, your assumption that they were prejudice. Made you decide you did not want to work there.
Your prejudgement may have been correct. Life is full of choices.
Other than in science fiction we never HONESTLY what would have happened it we had.

In terms of age discrimination. A shock years ago when I got a senior coffee from a zit faced kid at Mcdonalds without asking.
Who is that OLD ...... looking back at me as I shave?

I'm going to be 61 soon Mrs. Gracie. I don't know why but maybe it's the way I was dragged up. I have unending total respect for people, all of them. Until I sense without a link that they are not genuine. I use my intuition. Always have always will. Most of the time correct. Seldom wrong.

Sometimes I wonder if a sharp answer to a post that is disagreeable to someone might be answered more gently if the recipient's age was known. I wonder? Conversely is it OK for a person of advanced age to speak down to a person who is younger?

I feel no prejudice towards me at all even though I'm Calorically Challenged, Catholic, Live in The Villages or for other reasons that are private. I reject all of that because ultimately what another person feels about me is none of my business, who cares! :mademyday: Great question. Keep them coming! :)

Good thoughts. I do speak down to youngsters sometimes who are not my kin and try to explain the world to me. Perhaps I should listen.

Other forms of discrimination....that many seek:

Handicapped parking.
VIP lines at theme parks.
Preferred parking.....anywhere.

Sometimes, in some situations, what some folks like to refer to as "discrimination"...is actually simply common sense and "leveling the playing field." :ohdear:


I could even provide a plethora of links citing local case law, all the way up to THE SUPREME'S decisions, but methinks those that would benefit the most from those links...wouldn't even bother reading them. :oops:


Just glad to help. :wave:

How did Jefferson put it: The greatest inequality is to treat unequals equally?

Unequals….? That's one statement from Jefferson that I personally dislike...