I’ve by no means been a fan of stereotypes. Then once more, not many individuals are. However whether or not we need to or not, all of us succumb generally to the attract of the stereotype and its means to autocomplete gaps in our consciousness about sure folks or teams.
After I grew to become president of Varsity in 2024, I made it my outspoken mission to battle stereotypes concerning the older grownup inhabitants each time I may, and I challenged our crew to do the identical. That features stereotypes in dialog, in popular culture and in advertising. I felt good concerning the progress I used to be making — after which I heard a joke that made me snigger once I shouldn’t have.
Cease me for those who’ve heard this one, however it’s paraphrased thusly:
A bunch of 40-year-old girls talk about the place to fulfill for dinner. They comply with meet on the Ocean View restaurant due to the good-looking waiters. Ten years later, at 50, they determine to revisit the restaurant as a result of the wine choice is sweet.
At 60, they just like the peace and quiet that the Ocean View presents. A decade later, now 70, they select the identical restaurant as a result of it’s wheelchair-accessible. Lastly, at 80, the group agree to fulfill on the Ocean View as a result of they’d by no means been there earlier than.
In the event you smiled — and even laughed — that’s not going to do a substantial amount of hurt. I laughed, too. At first. What the joke underscores is that stereotypes about growing old and the older grownup inhabitants are throughout us. Some stereotypes are harmless enjoyable — such because the joke above — however some are based mostly on legitimately dangerous misconceptions. Additionally just like the joke above.
Phrases matter.
The stereotypes take many varieties, however most are centered round perceptions of older folks as frail, forgetful or bodily incapable of performing on a regular basis duties corresponding to driving, procuring or just taking good care of themselves. And though our considerations about these declines normally are rooted in good intentions (the security of the growing old particular person or the folks round them), making use of them broadly to a complete inhabitants can have dire penalties.
However don’t take my phrase for it. A Georgia State College research by psychology and gerontology researcher Sarah Barber, PhD, discovered that when older adults are stigmatized as bodily or cognitively impaired, they carry out under their true talents on varied duties.
Stereotypes can also result in damaging self-evaluation.
“Individuals fear that there’s fact to the negatives,” Barber stated. “After they overlook, they could fear they’re on a slippery slope in the direction of dementia and decline.”
There’s no query that dementia and decline are real considerations for folks of their 70s, 80s and 90s, however diagnosing such situations in older family members with out medical trigger could be detrimental to the very folks you’re attempting to guard. All jokes apart, that’s one thing everybody within the senior dwelling business ought to take very severely.
Derek Dunham is president of Varsity, a full-service advertising company centered on senior dwelling and the mature market.
The opinions expressed in every McKnight’s Senior Residing visitor column are these of the writer and should not essentially these of McKnight’s Senior Residing.
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