New Ageing Better campaign calls for an end to everyday ageist phrases
The Centre for Ageing Better’s first anti-ageism campaign is calling on the nation to question their negative assumptions about age as new polling highlights the habitual use of highly ageist everyday phrases such as “over the hill” and “mutton dressed as lamb”.
New polling from the Age Without Limits campaign reveals that one in five people aged 55-64 have been told they are too old for something while around one in 12 people aged 45-54 have been told old dogs can’t learn new tricks.
The survey also found that one in 10 people have described an older person as “past their sell-by date” while nearly one in five people (18%) have used the phrase “mutton dressed as lamb” about an older person.
In total, around half of the population has been on the receiving end or used one of eight highly ageist phrases, identified by the Age Without Limits campaign as amongst the common and harmful, including “dinosaur”, “over the hill” or “stuck in their ways”.
Harriet Bailiss, Co-lead for the Age Without Limits campaign at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “Negative assumptions about ageing are so commonplace that we’ve all probably heard comments describing older people as a bit of a dinosaur or over the hill.
“When you actually stop and think about those phrases, they’re loaded with negativity. Who would want to be considered as past their sell-by date and compared to a rotten and inedible piece of food?
“We know from our campaign that these ‘little phrases’ can have big consequences. They can really sting for those on the receiving end and can resonate for years. Ultimately they shape how we treat others, and how we see ourselves.
“Chipping away at confidence, influencing life decisions, limiting opportunities and forcing people to question where they fit in within their workplace, community and family.”
The newly released polling also reveals that almost one in four people aged between 45 and 54 have been called stuck in their ways – rising to 28 per cent among those aged 75 and above.
More than one in eight people aged 75 or above have been told they are past their sell-by date while one in 10 people aged between 45 and 54 have been told they are over the hill. Nearly one in 10 people aged 65 and above have been called a dinosaur.
And the survey also found significant proportions of people admitting to using highly ageist phrases including more than one in five people who have described an older person as stuck in their ways. One in eight people have described an older person as needing to dress their age while more than one in ten people have described an older person as being over the hill.
