Issue #5. The Age Positivity movement - are we part of the problem?

Guest editor and Insta Legend Cathi Rae asks - where are the 'older old' and the working class women? And is the Age Positive movement part of the problem?

@Cathi Rae. Pic credit @raygumbleyphotography

Hello Croners! As you hopefully know, ‘Tits to the Wind’ aims to seek out the positives and celebrate the joy and sisterhood in getting older. That’s because I believe that we can age in a healthier way if we feel less fearful about the future.

Imagine my joy then, when one of our Style-Crone heroines got in touch and offered to write a piece for TTTW! 🥳

For those who aren’t familiar, Cathi Rae is a slow-fashion advocate, age-positive model and writer. She embodies so many positive crone qualities through her ‘little corner of instagram’ such as being:

• comfortable in her own skin

• strong, powerful and unapologetic

• proud to stand out, rather than slavishly fitting in.

Above all, she’s honest, intelligent, insightful, a promoter of sisterhood, and a beautiful writer to boot!

Disruptor that she is, I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised then, when she said that the piece she actually wanted to write for us was an exploration of the DARKER side of the Age Positive movement.

I hope you’ll support this occasional departure from us holding hands and skipping through fields together, to lean into some of the darker sides of the age positive movement of which we are a part.

I know our readers are more than capable of holding more than one conflicting idea at a time, and it’s certainly made me think.

We’d love to know your thoughts, so please do share in the comments at the end. (Usual rules apply - be kind, unite don’t divide).

Much love and croneage, and massive thanks to Cathi,
Juzza. xxx

Over to you Cathi…

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The Age Positivity movement - are we part of the problem?

By guest editor, Cathi Rae

In my little corner of instagram - @cathirae - I’m driven by my belief in the validity of older people, the importance of representation and the need to challenge ageism and ageist assumptions.

But whilst I celebrate when I read about an older person who has discovered a love of pottery, bought a camper van or enrolled in full time education, increasingly, I’m beginning to feel that the Age Positive movement is informed by privilege, a lack of real political discussion, and an absence of debate (or even recognition) around the problems that ageing in an ageist society actually feels like.

So in this article, I want to highlight a few things that are making me feel uncomfortable about my involvement in the movement, ending with a few suggestions of what we could do collectively to make things better.

But first, the good bits! 🙌

The Age Positive movement has rightly focussed much of its energy around issues of representation, challenging designers and high street stores to use older models in their campaigns. And it’s working! (See Justine’s TTTW Issue 3 for some style crone examples).

Our movement has also highlighted some of the ageist prejudice that older celebrities face. It’s blown the lid off the multi pound industry that is ‘the anti-ageing beauty product’ and it’s given thousands of women the confidence to stop colouring their hair.

Of course the Age Positivity movement is doing great work on the menopause, access to HRT and better treatment for women at this stage of their lives. It’s allowed us to be critical of government and healthcare, and created supportive communities where people can connect with each other. 

In the employment arena too, we’ve been part of a wider movement challenging ageist practice in the workplace and the embedded ageism that means older workers find it almost impossible to find jobs once they hit their 60s.

And of course, we’ve played a real contribution in disrupting the negative health narrative that says that ageing equates to frailty, and always leads to physical issues. So much great work has been done in sharing important and life affirming stories which show and celebrate older people leading full, physical lives.

Battles are being fought and won in our space, and I’m absolutely delighted and stand up in support of all of this. 

So why then, am I feeling increasingly uncomfortable about it?

#1. Lack of ‘real’ representation and voice for the ‘older old’

Much as we love to celebrate our glorious fashionistas such as Iris Apfel, or the stunningly beautiful Carmen Dell’Orefice, they are simply not true representations of ordinary ageing people, and I’m starting to wonder if images like these are actually putting more pressure on us to look a certain way?

Pic: Iris Apfel in photoshoot for H&M.

Are these images perpetuating the idea that women are still to be measured primarily by their physical appearance? 

Quite rightfully, the Age Positive movement has challenged the representation of older people as frail, or somehow ‘less’. But when we focus only on the most positive, when we only show only the most beautiful and inspiring; do we risk continuing the narrative that hides the reality of ageing, particularly the real life experiences of many as we enter extreme old age?

#2. Privilege 

As a loose knit community, many of us in the Age Positive space (and I absolutely include myself here) are coming from a place of privilege. We are often well educated, technologically savvy, comfortable to navigate the world of social media and in many cases, financially secure.

Many are the quintessential Baby Boomers, homeowners (often with more than one home), business owners, or working in interesting and creative roles and with access to affluent, retired lifestyles. 

We have, perhaps, been too quiet in discussions around class, race and income.

We need to understand that ageing is not played out on a level playing field. The differences of experience between the most financially secure older people and the poorest are stark.

Blackpool, for example, one of the poorest areas in the UK, has the lowest life expectancy of any city in the UK – 74 for men and 79 for women, compare this to the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where the average life expectancy is almost 88. 

Our experiences of ageing are informed by our experiences in youth and middle age. Campaigns that seem to suggest that ageing is an equally positive experience for everyone, are at best naive, and at worst, refuse to use their considerable social media influence to talk honestly about the life experiences of the oldest and poorest.

#3. Work and money

We are a movement that rarely acknowledges that age and poverty are inextricably linked for the poorest in our society. We rarely talk about money or the huge divide between the most affluent and the poorest older people. Many of the aspirational lifestyles we do talk about assume a high degree of financial security.

We don’t articulate what many of us already know, that ageing and retirement are not always opportunities to “follow our dreams,” but the start of (or continuation of), a life of financial anxiety.

In 2022, 2.5 million people claimed the State Pension, but of those, 1.4 million also claimed Pension Credits. These are individuals who have no private pensions, no employer pensions, no savings, no investments. This means-tested benefit brings a single person’s income up to £202 per week (and it’s one of the least claimed state benefits – so many older people are living on far less).

Although we’ve played a part in highlighting ageist practice in the workplace and the age-based assumptions made by employers, we’ve largely focussed on middle class solutions to what are essentially middle class problems – part-time working, job sharing, flexible working hours and conditions. There’s a focus on the type of job which might be possible, even desirable, to continue working in as a 70, 80-year-old.

I talked, a few months ago, to two staff in my local Wilko, both in their 60s. They knew the store was closing. They were both very scared that they won’t be able to find other jobs and were acutely aware that, in the world of minimum wage work, their age is definitely against them. The last thing they need is part-time, flexible or zero hour contracts.

The Age Positivity movement ignores two key realities when it focuses on work beyond retirement age.

Firstly, that not all jobs are possible with an ageing body. Our glorious Tory government’s insulting suggestion that older retired workers could improve their income by becoming Deliveroo cycle couriers, ignores the simple fact that what might be do-able in your 50s is less likely for many at 70!

And secondly, that there is a huge difference between working at 70 because you love what you do… and putting in shifts at Aldi to avoid living in poverty. 

#4. Health inequality

As a movement, we are still pretty quiet on the topic of the almost inevitable health issues that come with getting older. The impossibility of getting a face-to-face GP appointment, the closure of local pharmacies, the quiet privatisation of dental care, podiatry and other services disproportionately affects the oldest older people. These are the people least likely to make a fuss, to campaign for change whilst of course perhaps having more need of these services than at any other time in their lives.

When the Age Positivity movement choses to focus on the narrative of a 90-year-old yoga teacher or 80-somethings discovering open water swimming, are we are denying the actual experiences of the majority older people? Are we in danger of creating a movement that excludes those of us living with age-related disability?

So, as a movement, what can we actually do?
A call to arms! 👊🏽

Okay, so our Age Positive movement is still relatively new. We’re still finding our feet, still navigating what it means to age positively, and doing all of this while we live through our own ageing journey.

We’ve created a movement which has, as its core value, ageing as a positive experience, but equally, we need to be careful that exclusively focussing on the positives, risks excluding debate and the very different lived experiences of ageing for so many women.

So, what can we, as a movement do to become a voice of change, the default group that government, industry and charities talk to when they want to hear about how the needs of older people can best be served? Here’s a few suggestions to get us started, but we’d love to hear yours too. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

1. 👊🏽 Improve representation of ‘older old.’
   Our Age Positive community, must, I believe, provide space and dialogue to allow all the voices of the ageing communities to be heard and valued. We need to work with people in their 80s and 90s. We need to listen to what they say and to provide a seat at our table for them as well. And let’s increase our use of images of ordinary, much older people, people who really do ‘look their age’, and talk more openly about the realities of the ageing journey. 
   

2. 👊🏽 Acknowledge our privilege and lead by example.
   Let’s challenge ageist hiring practice in our own organisations, and choose to employ older people in our own businesses.
   

3. 👊🏽 Put our campaigning weight behind movements for better opportunities for all older people campaign for better opportunities for older people.
   Let’s use our voices and our networks to raise awareness of the costs of health care cuts to the oldest in our communities.
   Let’s campaign for a dignified level of income for older people.
   Let’s campaign for a living pension and lend our voices to those working to improve the financial standing of the very oldest and the very poorest.

Let’s all work towards a movement that gives space to the truly invisible, most marginalised oldest people, to ensure that ageing positively is viable for ALL, not just those who already have more privilege and power than they could ever need.

Who's in?

Cathi Rae, November 2023

You can join the debate on Cathi’s Insta account @cathirae and the crone club insta @crone_club_reclaiming_crone