Why, when you reach a certain age, are you expected to start wearing bobbly cardigans?
Or that you have to put up with raised eyebrows when you order a gin and tonic instead of a cup of tea? So ask many of the users on Gransnet — a social networking site for over 50s — whose sense of fun and adventure has not dwindled as the number of birthday candles has increased.
Challenging the stereotype of older people is something that is discussed on the Gransnet forums at length. Why is this (financially often much better off) demographic largely ignored by advertisers? How is it that ageism in the media is still so prevalent? When do you become ‘old’— 70? 80? 90?
The overriding consensus is that getting older doesn’t mean having to settle for the boundaries that society enforces on us — but challenging them, the large issues as well as the everyday stereotypes, is the only way people’s perception of ‘older people’ is going to change.