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?

I saw that. Ridiculous

It’s not ageist/sexist/whatever to note your own personal experience of a situation. It might be if you said all old/female/gay people do xyz.

I didn't see the thread but if the thread was about old ladies taking a long time to get changed then that wasn't a stereotype. It's a fact that manual dexterity decreases with age and so it's going to become more time consuming to get changed. But if she was getting annoyed about it then that was unreasonable as obviously it is a natural decline and no ones fault.

@Tal45

I didn't see the thread but if the thread was about old ladies taking a long time to get changed then that wasn't a stereotype. It's a fact that manual dexterity decreases with age and so it's going to become more time consuming to get changed. But if she was getting annoyed about it then that was unreasonable as obviously it is a natural decline and no ones fault.

So would you think it ok to say 'fat ladies taking a long time to get changed' on the basis that flexibility can decline with weight?

I like facts for context & interpret the information as fact unless there's no reasonable alternative interpretation. I don't mind opinions as a rule.

"female colleague" or "quite disabled" or "tall black man"= facts

"very young, pretty and slender" = opinion but not harsh ones

"Nasty old trout" = prejudice

@Seeline

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

It doesn't make it any worse that the OP was lumping women who don't consider themselves of an age to be classed as 'old' together with those who are older. Obviously to the OP all those women are relatively old. The stereotype of nosey old woman is offensive. It doesn't become more so just because it feels closer to home.