Addressing How We Talk about Aging Never Gets Old: 'Whatever You Do, Don't Say Elderly'
- 2017-08-25
- Forbes
“Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.” ~Maya Angelou
Wearing out, crumbling, declining, fading, waning, stale. These are just a few of the synonyms for aging on Thesaurus.com. On a slightly more positive note, though, the word-finder lists maturing, developing, mellowing and getting on.
I guess you can’t argue with the English vernacular, but there are people and companies out there that are trying to put a more positive spin on the twilight years. And they’re not calling them the twilight years.
Just days ago, the beauty publishing giant Allure Magazine declared it would no longer use the term “anti-aging,” as they believe among other things, it suggests, “…looking at our life as a hill that we start rolling uncontrollably down past 35.”