How Old is Old?

By Karen Sternheimer

A student of mine had a birthday this week. “How old are you?” a classmate asked.

“Old,” he told her. He had just turned 22.

The other students who had not reached the 21 year milestone agreed. Twenty-two is old.

I listened on, as someone with only faint memories of being that age myself. Surely someone in their late thirties like me would seem elderly to this group.

“Old” is of course relative. In my first year away at college, a friend of mine had a roommate who was 22. “She’s 22, can you believe it? She’s already had her own apartment and everything,” my friend whispered, so nobody would hear of the wizened woman she had been assigned to live with in the dorm. At eighteen, 22 seemed very worldly. And now many years later, my own perception of “old” continually gets older, and my expectations for what chronological age means shift as I pass through many previously “old” years myself.

We have been hearing the “how old is old” question a lot lately about presidential candidate John McCain. Although he is a long-time player on the national political stage, I never heard any reference to his age before this year. If you follow political news even a little, you have probably heard commentators note that if elected, he will be the oldest president to enter the White House at 72. This possibility has led to debate amongst the pundits—and jokes from late-night comics—about whether McCain is too old.

And while there have been many issues about sexism and racism that have arisen through the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, leading to discussions about both race and gender, I haven't heard any critical discussion about ageism. 

In a Pew Research Center poll conducted in February 2008, 32 percent of respondents thought that McCain was too old to be president, and when asked what adjectives first came to mind to describe him, the leading answer was “old.” By contrast, when former Senator Bob Dole ran for president in 1996 at age 73, 34 percent thought he was too old. Not much change in a dozen years.

Representative John Murtha, 75, has publicly stated that he thinks McCain is too old for the job. The AARP (formerly known as the American Association for Retired Persons) criticized Murtha for making this statement, but ironically, older Americans like Murtha are more likely to think McCain’s age is a problem, according to a May 2008 Pew Research Center poll. In contrast to registered voters 18-34, of whom 24 percent said his age is an issue, forty percent of registered voters 65 and older thought McCain was too old to be president. Why the big difference?

Getting back to the idea that age is relative, being over seventy carries different meaning today than it did a half century ago, when McCain and his cohort were in their twenties. A white male born in 2004 has an average life expectancy of 78.3, according to the 2008 Statistical Abstract of the United States. By contrast, when McCain was born in 1936, the average life expectancy for white males was 58.0 (up from 46.6 in 1900). So what would have been an elderly age decades ago has mutated into late middle age today. 

Other factors make age even more relative. Having long-lived family members is one indicator of longevity (McCain’s mother is 96), as is having access to quality health care, living and working in a safe and healthy environment, and having a positive outlook. Other lifestyle factors—such as not smoking and exercising regularly also extend one’s life span. 

Stress is another important issue. People who have jobs with a great deal of instability, little autonomy, and significant potential danger (such as in mining, construction, and driving a cab) also tend to have decreased life expectancy. While the president makes a decent salary—$400,000—and has arguably the best health care of any person in the world, the job is incredibly stressful. Even in the best of times, twenty to thirty percent of your constituents won’t like you. Lunatics making death threats require you to have a full-time cadre of bodyguards (four of your predecessors have been assassinated, four others have died of other causes; that means that nearly one in five haven't made it out of this job alive). And if you are vain about your appearance, this is the wrong job for you. Check out this ABC News slide show of before and after pictures to see how the presidency has aged presidents in recent years.

Questions about McCain’s age may seem legitimate and jokes just in good fun, but age discrimination exists in many forms, and has very real consequences for people who need to work for a living. As many people struggle economically, they will need to work longer. Federal legislation, first passed in 1967 and amended in 1986, bans age limits for most jobs, but that doesn’t stop employers from refusing to hire people looking for work. These are the issues we need to seriously consider as our population ages, especially since our society increasingly worships looking young and pathologizes the aging process.

Comments

[a very public sociologist]

Re: the perception of age, it is interesting. A couple of weeks ago one of my activist chums invited me to his 21st. A night of drink and general debauchery lay ahead. As someone who's over 10 years older I told him I'd be too old to be there among his undergrad friends. Don't worry, he said, L was going to be there.

L is 24.

It's interesting how to his mind I would have more things in common with a 24 year old than he would. But when I think back to when i was 21 that age did seem far off. And now, 10 years on, it seems all so young. I guess that feeling will only get greater as the years advance :(

(I've just realised I've dropped into pathologising the ageing process, duh).

[patrick]

The question of age in this case is very interesting in this case sociologically, but politically i think it is a relevant aspect. I would say that questions of being-in-touch and an understanding of the current attitudes of the people you're in charge of do apply when running for president. Yes it is an issue, but is very applicable. Here in Melbourne Australia at the moment there is a 2am lockout, which means you cannot be let into nightclubs and bars after 2am. Although this is only a 3 month trial, it is effecting many young people and the difference of age and the understanding of comes with it, i would say, can be problematic like this.

[paul]

In my opinion, the author makes a good point, in that she shows how age is relative to each individual. I grew up with a single mother, who had moved to the other end of the country to get away from her family. Other than one or two trips back East, I never had much interaction with my grandparents. My only exposure to people that were older than my mother were teachers in school and some neighbors, who used to ask me to rake up their leaves for fifty cents.

As a kid, I treated all adults with respect and never differentiated between those that were older than my mom. As I grew older, I began to see that I held a bit of contempt for the elderly, not wanting to be around anyone that I felt was “too old”. I always felt that they were too slow, had nothing in common with me, and were completely out of step with my beliefs and values. In my teens, after realizing that I was gay, these feelings only seemed to intensify. When I looked around my social circles, there never seemed to be “old” gay people. I assumed that once they turned thirty, they went to Key West or Palm Springs to live out the rest of their lives. At that time of my life, living in San Francisco, it never dawned on me that I would one day be thirty, and “over the hill”.

Fast forward to now, and I am well past thirty, and pushing forty. Looking back, I realize that in San Francisco, I was surrounded by people that were older than me, but they were invisible to me. I remember laughing when I passed a Cabaret bar and they were all signing to Judy Garland, or feeling sorry for the “old” guys eating their turkey dinners at the corner restaurant, because they had nowhere to go during the holidays. Never once, did I think that this could be my life. In fact, I do not even think that I planned for the future, which would explain why I am at City College trying to complete a degree so “late” in life. It also never occurred to me, that these “older” men may be happy. I had always assumed that they lived a wretched and depressing life as men in their late forties and fifties. Not once, did it ever cross my mind that these people were living full and productive lives just like me.

I believe that growing up without grandparents, or the influence of people of a certain age, has given me a skewed outlook on life. It does not help, that we live in a throwaway culture that treats the elderly like last years IPod, or that every television network focuses on youthful characters that never seem to age. It is this combination of youth culture and the desire for something new that drives our society into overlooking the value of the elderly. Growing older has opened up many doors for me, and closed only a few. My only regret about growing older is that I never took the time to stop and get some advice from someone who’s been there.

[Taryn]

I believe that your personal perception of old depends on the age you are, along with how comfortable you are being that age. Many people that are older and will not readily admit to their age may say that old is in the 70's, where as someone older that will admit to their age, may say 100 is old. It just depends on your idea of age, where you are in your life, and how you are feeling about life.

[Amanda]

I found your blog very interesting. Today people are always wondering how old is old? And well I believe as time goes on that age that is 'old' will keep going down. As our society changes, jobs are going to younger people and we aren't looking up to our elders, we are looking up to the people that are just a few years older than us. Even some people in their 40's are looking up to people who are only 25 and have a great career. In today's society, you start living at a younger age, which tends to make us think that by time you reach 30 years old, you are quite old.

[Heather Chapman]

One's personal views on what “old” is depend on their age and what they are accustomed to. I agree that people change their mind about old as they grow until they reach the certain point where they are older than much of the population because they are close to the life expectancy age. Also a person’s lifestyle may influence their aspects on old as well. A person who is around many people of their own age may have a very different outlook on what old is compared to someone who is greatly surrounded by people who are many years older or younger than themselves. It is an interesting topic to research considering the many things may influence anyone's views and the many ways that one's perception changes on it.

[Anonymous]

"Old" is definitely a relative term and I think it depends mostly on the current age of the person judging. The debate over whether John McCain was "old" was interesting. The ageism used against him by most of his opponents served to justify why they didn't want him as president. This fact was often brought up in the news, but rarely was it looked down upon as a form of discrimination. On the other hand, anytime someone opposed Obama, they were accused of being a racist. I think ageism can be just as hurtful in some case.

[Sierra Petersen]

Previously, I had never thought about ageism being along the same lines as sexism and racism. As I've learned from this article, ageism can be as hurtful and stressful as sexism or racism can, it just doesn't seem to be as common. With John McCain's campaign for presidency, I never thought of him as "too old" to be president. If anything, that would mean that he was more experienced politically and even more ready for the job compared to his opponents! I've never thought about what age the term old actually comes into play, but I'll be paying a little more attention to the word now.

[Alexandra]

Your article brings up a very good point about age not being an issue that many people considered when they thought of Barack Obama but only of John McCain. Though Obama is one of the youngest presidents ever elected, people are much less likely to think of youth in the same negative light as they think of old age, even when it could mean the difference between experience and naivete. As a culture we are so focused on looking, acting, and generally being young that we tend to forget the gifts that come as we grow older, wisdom and experience.

[Giovanna]

It's quite funny how age is perceived by those less affected by it.. perhaps it's good that "wisdom" and "experience" have so many different meanings! Comparatively, I'm sure there are different levels of achievement associated with different levels of ages.