Who You Calling "Elderly"? The Politics of Language
I've recently had word connotation debates with three sixty-something women. Two of the women are retired English teachers, and the other one is a writer. They certainly should not have problems understanding English. Yet all of them think that they are not elderly. The two English teachers think that "elderly" means "frail" and "really old." The humorous writer thinks that "elderly" means anyone ten years older than she is; she's 62. Here is the American Heritage College Dictionary definition of "elderly": "Being past middle age and approaching old age." To quote Meryl's comment to Shirley in "Postcards from the Edge": How many 120-year-old women do you know? Ladies, if you are 60, you're elderly, not yet old, but approaching it. My elderly female contemporaries' problems with connotation reminds me of how our politicians manipulate us through language. Rachel Maddow pointed out this week that the Republicans were calling the Affordable Healthcare Act a bill instead of a law in order to make people believe that it can still be stopped. I also saw a poll this week that showed 46% of people disapproved of Obamacare, but only 37% disapproved of the Affordable Healthcare Act. An Alexandra Pelosi film on Bill Maher's HBO show proved that there are people who do not realize the two laws are the same. The Republicans are clearly winning the word game. The Republican strategist Frank Luntz, for instance, is an expert in word play. He taught Republicans to call greedy capitalists "job creators" even when they were firing people (as Mitt Romney did) and shipping their jobs overseas. The Republicans also made the connotations of the word "liberal" so toxic that we liberals had to change our name to "progressives." But there's good news from MSNBC. Rachel's protégé Chris Hayes called himself a liberal on his show last week. Young intellectual commentators like Chris and Rachel give this elderly liberal hope that we can eventually win the word game. Maybe before I die, "conservative" will become the toxic word. And maybe the Tea Party will join the John Birchers and the Dixiecrats in the Political Hall of Shame.
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Woofey
(last edited Oct 09, 2013 11:07AM)
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Oct 09, 2013 11:06AM
Okay, Mary, guess I should be glad you didn't throw geriatric into the mix, but I still contend that "elderly" is a frail great-grandma designation while "old" just connotes years past about 50 (unless we all start living to 100 and can count 50 as middle aged!). But I have no issue with the rest of this blog.
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You can't redefine terms, Woofey. Who do you think you are? Frank Luntz? "Elderly" means not yet old; old is older than elderly. Old is "geriatric."
Words represent concepts of commoaliry within a culture. The same concepts are not always common between different cultures. It expresses how we as a group conceptualize. True the world is shri
nking but when it comes to age a concept most share we find that Americans for the most part do not revere their elders. Elders meaning the ones who have come before us. The new40 is a well put together 60 due to living better longer and plastic surgery. No one wants to be an elder much less elderly. French call middle age certain age but its not any longer. Chinese feel their elders who have passed can positively. affect the living. So we know that elders are somewhere. between 40 and death depending upon who's looking. Political linguists also categorizes conceptually to favor one group over another. As on the new 40 why bother except these elders have great buying power. The concept historically of the Tea Party carries a trust of freedom. Liberals now mean the C word. Mary you have it right. But elderly is senior citizen now!
nking but when it comes to age a concept most share we find that Americans for the most part do not revere their elders. Elders meaning the ones who have come before us. The new40 is a well put together 60 due to living better longer and plastic surgery. No one wants to be an elder much less elderly. French call middle age certain age but its not any longer. Chinese feel their elders who have passed can positively. affect the living. So we know that elders are somewhere. between 40 and death depending upon who's looking. Political linguists also categorizes conceptually to favor one group over another. As on the new 40 why bother except these elders have great buying power. The concept historically of the Tea Party carries a trust of freedom. Liberals now mean the C word. Mary you have it right. But elderly is senior citizen now!
I think it's interesting, Mara, that "elder" has a more positive connotation than "elderly." Elders are people we revere, as in "respect your elders." But for some reason "elderly" is seen by some elders (like Woofey) as weak and frail.
Yes Mary right again but elder is a noun of substance while elderly though not an adverb resembles one. She is elderly.. S.he has is an elder. Elderly somewhat describes the extent of the elder state without the reverence.
Finally found your blog, Mary!And here's the NPR link to a similar discussion:
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/12/1741249...
That (elderly) girl in your office
Thanks for the link, "Suzie." The NPR story is a bit more tolerant of you elderly people than I am. Why are you Suzie? I admit it's a better alias than Woofey. But why not use your own relatively common name?
Funny it's the eve of my mother's passing at 89 in 2004. Her nicname was Girlie because she was so young at heart. Used to say. , I never think about age!
It's interesting that your mother was 89 almost ten years ago, and my mother, who has two children older than you, is still "only" 85. She's lived to have a seventeen-year-old great grandson because she had her children so young ( at nineteen and twenty-one). She's now officially the oldest person in our community because the 94-year-old woman, who lived across the courtyard (with her unmarried daughter) from us and moved in about a month after we did (in 1999), died last week.
Girlie had me at age 35. An older brother 4.5 years and a younger 16 months. She had her career as an actress and had trouble conceiving. She is most like the character Auntie Mamie.
35 is actually a more appropriate age to have children than 19 or 21, especially since we have now learned that our brains are not completely formed when we're in our twenties (remember the story about the football player and his fake girlfriend?). So Girlie did it right. Unfortunately, it's probably easier to get pregnant and carry the baby to term at 19 than at 35. Somebody messed up when creating the body and the brain. The body does things that the brain is not ready for.
Mary wrote: "Thanks for the link, "Suzie." The NPR story is a bit more tolerant of you elderly people than I am. Why are you Suzie? I admit it's a better alias than Woofey. But why not use your own relatively..."I use Suzie for sites that might badger me with emails and promotional stuff. Guarding my real name like a rottweiler.
Good idea, Suzie. Some sites force you to choose a nickname. I used bluesgirl for the createspace site and then decided never to post on it again because I had so much trouble figuring out how to post and reply.
I swear, Mary, I cannot BULEEVE you're talking tech talk. Apparently old dogs CAN.
What tech talk? Site? Createspace? As I told my niece who hooked up my DVD player when she visited us Friday, "I don't know nothing about technology." The cover of my memoir has been chosen for a Kirkus Independent Publishers Best of 2013 award, so they wanted me to upload a better image of it or something. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I told them to contact the people at createspace. I always use my age as an excuse for my ignorance. "I'm 64," I said. Of course, my friend Suzie is not impressed by that excuse since she's 66.
