Change Starts with You

Author: Büşra Can, MD

Afilliation: Marmara University, Pendik Training and Research Hospital, Division of Geriatrics, Türkiye

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Last month, when I went to get my long overdue haircut, my hairdresser asked me, as a way of greeting, what I was going to do about my greying hair. Obviously, I got very angry and called him out for his ageist comment. I told him to stop the marginalization and the stigmatization of old age! I am not sure I told this out loud, though, because the last thing I remember was the hair color chart in my hand. As a geriatrician educated on the topic, I was well aware of the tendency to associate aging with decline and I knew I was being drawn into the ageism deeply engraved in our culture. Still, I could not help but wonder…which one would look more flattering, chestnut or caramel copper?

I know that a lot of my colleagues have heard the same from well-wishing friends and relatives. Even in the medical community, we seem to have an anxiety about aging. As health care providers fighting for the rights of older adults on daily basis, why is it that we fail to recognize the propaganda for staying young and not giving in to old age? Trends taking over society glorify eternal youth, achieved by means of an anti-wrinkle cream, camouflage for grey air or a cosmetic surgery to age “gracefully”. We desperately try to reverse the effects of old age from our faces under the false pretense of promoting healthy longevity. Both men and women are praised when they look younger than their age, but women are usually held to higher standards. This is an example of gender-based ageism or “gendered ageism”, which means that the age discrimination is more fierce if you are a woman. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the consequences of ageism are worse for women, leading to reduced self-esteem, social exclusion and low well-being. Numerous studies, mostly from the US and Europe, have investigated the extent of the problem, with no obvious solution on the horizon.

I could have let the hairdresser transform me into a younger version of myself that day, but it would only help reinforce the notion that ageing should be avoided at all costs, especially if you are a woman. Promoting positive attitudes towards aging is an important part of combatting ageism and also one of the pillars of the WHO’s age-friendly communities framework. To be able to achieve this, we must dismantle the discriminatory norms of modern society and reconcile with our aging self.