We’re No Senior Citizens.
By Erica and Karen
Do you identify as a senior citizen? We don’t.
What is a senior citizen?
Merriam-Webster’s definition is straightforward: an older adult and especially one who is age 65 or older. What the term senior citizen adds to the basic fact of being over 65 is not obvious.
U.S. News and World Report has a list of characteristics it says triggers the definition of senior citizen:
Qualifying for Medicare.
Social Security eligibility.
Receiving senior discounts.
Spending retirement savings.
Stepping away from work.
Changes in health.
A shift in priorities.
Rethinking age stereotypes.
Pretty amusing that discounts is a trigger for the definition when one must meet the definition to trigger the discounts. Again, what is the point of a definition that is malleable or incomprehensible?
And of course there are worse definitions.
Culturally, a senior citizen is someone who is slowing down in their life. They have accomplished raising a family, having a career, or any other monumental feat in their adult life. An elderly person in the US is typically thought to be wiser or more experienced.
Economically, a senior requires financial support either in the form of retirement funds or savings or with the support of a caregiver. Since a senior citizen can no longer work they need to have someone or some account that can help to cover their expenses. As a result, seniors are often dependent on others for their welfare.
Medically, a senior citizen is more apt to have health problems, which are age-related. Loss of mobility, hearing and vision are the most common health complaints. However, elderly individuals can also be more likely to suffer chronic pain and illnesses, which require aid and support from outside sources.
What nonsense. This description is not one to which most of us would answer. We are wiser and more experienced, but we are not slowing down just because we raised families and completed careers. We provided for our own financial securiity by working for decades. And we do not for the most part have health problems as a consequence of reaching the grand age of 65.
We do meet many of the proposed factual criteria, like being retired, or being over 65, or being eligible for Medicare or Social Security. But those criteria are in no way linked to being decrepit people who can’t work and who are forced to depend on others for everything.
The term senior citizen does not need to be replaced. It needs to be erased.
