or is it acceptable to describe people by age?

[TannyFickler]

Off the back of another thread, in which I was truly surprised by the accusations of ageism at the OP for describing a type of behaviour, and noting that the people engaging in it tended to be older/old enough to be her mother. Is that ageist? Have I been ignorantly offending people all my life in this manner?

some people will take offence, others ignore. totally fed up with the pc brigade.

@iheartredsquirrels

some people will take offence, others ignore. totally fed up with the pc brigade.

How do you define 'the PC brigade'?

It is ageist when it is unnecessary, or just plain wrong.

Stereotypes are usually unhelpful, and behaviours are not limited to or exclusive to particular ages.

I didn't see the thread, but I'm ready to bet that you could have covered the substance without including the age comment.

Did you find it necessary to add race, sex, gender, religion or sexual orientation to the observation? It's just as wrong and unnecessary to add age.

pc? i would have thought that was obvious tbh. i don't need someone to be offended on my behalf because i'm senior, older elderly whatever. i've still got a pulse so that's the main thing imb.

I don’t know…it slightly depends on what the comment was. I do notice quite a lot of casual ageism on MN though so I’m not surprised.

If the person generalised about a groups interest then yes it is ageist IMO.
If describing someone using an average older age bracket is okay.
Ps this is a TAAT.

There is nothing wrong with comparing generations of people or describing a person’s age, or even saying generalisations that are true like over 65s are more likely to have chronic health conditions.

It is ageist if you start going down the path of generalised value judgements. Like young people are self absorbed. Or old people drive too slow.

Insults based on age are always ageist- ie “ok, boomer” or “typical millennial”

some people will take offence, others ignore. totally fed up with the pc brigade.
Hate this shite saying as an excuse when called out on bad behaviour.

I think I was on that thread too. Elderly ladies are generally quite slow in changing rooms, so YANBU! There’s a type.

@PlanDeRaccordement

There is nothing wrong with comparing generations of people or describing a person’s age, or even saying generalisations that are true like over 65s are more likely to have chronic health conditions.

It is ageist if you start going down the path of generalised value judgements. Like young people are self absorbed. Or old people drive too slow.

Insults based on age are always ageist- ie “ok, boomer” or “typical millennial”

This. ^

The way some people get so sniffy and offended on here is pathetic.

The ones who get all arsey because you make an apparent generalisation about over 60s, are quite happy to berate the young. I have seen some nasty shit said about young people on here, but God FORBID you say anything about over 60s.

So much disingenuousness on here.

@RancidOldHag "Stereotypes are usually unhelpful" - are you sterotyping stereotypes?

@WhitePhantom

@LittleDandelionClock I think I’m about her with it.

The ones who get all arsey because you make an apparent generalisation about over 60s, are quite happy to berate the young.

Well, there you go making an 'apparent generalisation' about over 60s.

I have in the past been know to get a trifle 'arsey' when people make disparaging generalisations about older people but, contrary to your generalisation I, as a woman well over 60, have never in my life been 'quite happy to berate the young'. It's not something I do and I don't actually know anyone personally that is happy to berate the young.

You might want to work on your tendency to make sweeping generalisations about the over 60s.

There can be arseholes at any age, age does not recognise idiots such as those who call others boomer and snowflake . They can jog right off.

I think ageism is apparent on mumsnet. It's generally a bit dumb to lump all from any age group together and assume they have the same characteristics, views or behaviours. People vary massively.

The other very common form of ageism on here is ‘old’ being used as an adjective of abuse, as in ‘daft old bat’, ‘horrible old bag’. The person being described may well have been behaving in a daft or horrible way, but that doesn’t make it ok to use ‘old’ to belittle them. I hate how lax MN is on this internalised ageist misogyny.. Of course describing age is fine when it’s relevant, just as mentioning race or disability is fine when it’s relevant.

Context is everything. If someone was patronising you because of your perceived age, it makes sense to reference it. Or if you're discussing helping an elderly neighbour, young chil etc. But it's sometimes used in the same way newspapers say 'mum of three...' or 'Julie, 43,...' when it isn't relevent to the actual story/ post.

If its the thread im thinking of, the thrust of the OPs 'observation' was that older women who the OP described as 'women of a certain age' tended to wear their work lanyards in Tesco. By referencing age the OP encouraged a discussion about why these older women did this, as oppose to why some people in general do this. The reason it was off was firstly the othering of older women, as posters were encouraged to discuss 'them' and also the link between age and what OP saw as 'odd' behaviour. Naturally this led to posts with stereotypes about forgetfulness in middle sge, and even a suggestion the women were showing off that they worked ( presumably because at their age their lives were so small having a job was something to show off about)
So, was that thread ageist, absolutely. And if you're in any doubt whether reference to age is offensive, just substitute another group who experience discrimination for the age related reference, and see how it sounds then.

@moredogsthansense I absolutely agree that “Insult OLD insult” is not acceptable.

I am wondering if age is not something people are as cautious about in this way due to the fact most of us expect to be that age one day/have been that age in the past, and therefore it’s not a static thing like, say, ethnicity.

@5128gap It was a different thread, although I saw the beginnings of the one you referenced.

And if you're in any doubt whether reference to age is offensive, just substitute another group who experience discrimination for the age related reference, and see how it sounds then.

Whilst I am a free speech absolutist, after reading everyone’s thoughts I think I may choose to be more sensitive when referencing age in the future so as not to inadvertently upset anyone.

If it's the thread I'm thinking if, the OP was basically saying old women were nosey. She made this worse by saying the woman concerned was old enough to be her mother - she was 20ish- so basically lumping everyone over about 40 into the old, nosey woman category!

There is no harm in describing someone by age, if relevant to the point you are making. Just saying someone is old to reinforce some incorrect stereotype is ageist

@iheartredsquirrels The whole “boomer” thing is so awful. It makes people who use that term sound very, very stupid most of the time.

Opinions are like arseholes...everyone has got one!