Reclaiming Our Personal Power

Race, ethnicity, gender, social class and disability, and opportunities for educational attainment and employment create layers or levels of privilege that affect the ability to retire. Being a woman, Black, Hispanic, or disabled, for example, are all indicators that someone is more likely to experience the structural inequalities that lead to poverty. On average, older women receive about $4,500 less annually in Social Security benefits than men due to lower wages and caregiving responsibilities, creating lower lifetime earnings. The poverty rate for older people increases with age and is higher for women, blacks and Hispanics, and people in poor health. Older black men are twice as likely to be unemployed as older white men. Being at a disadvantage earlier in life can mean that not working in later life is simply not tenable. Regarding retirement as a life stage also implies that the desire to stop working is an expected and normal part of later life. Therefore, assuming impending retirement based on perceived age or ability is offensive and discriminatory. The pursuit of a working life is one way in which people find purpose and should not be summarily dismissed because of age or ability. The social institution of retirement normalized withdrawal and disengagement for older people without providing an adequate alternative to take its place. The homogeneity encapsulated within retirement neighborhoods acts as a collective representation of a retirement identity that reinforces separateness and othering. Segregation is defined as the action or state of setting something apart from others.

All Or Nothing At All

Whether intentionally driven by policy, laws, or out of desire, the result is a separateness that blocks opportunities for people of different walks of life to meet, interact, and learn together. As a result of ageism, elders feel excluded and marginalized with limited opportunities to contribute to society in a meaningful way. Institutionalizing retirement and formulating it as a lifestyle based on age exclusion has reinforced the vicious and complex ageism cycle. This is particularly damaging since a key mechanism to combatting fear of aging and ageism is the ability for younger and older people to spend time together organically. Ageism is based on assumptions, judgments, and stereotypes that feed bias and discrimination, and ageism is incited when people in different age groups claim superiority over the other. Younger people sometimes feel vilified and belittled by older people, and older people sometimes feel dismissed and devalued by younger people. When people of different age groups live, work, play, and learn together, they develop relationships based on reciprocity. However, during the latter twentieth century, the trends dictated building more walls and structures to cordon off the old from the young and the abled from the disabled. In turn, the term resident has become an identity that reinforces separateness and othering. Resident, like retiree, is a deficient descriptor in that it fails to meaningfully describe any attributes of importance to individuality. Although there is no dispute that the array of care options provided by the senior living industry fill critical needs and have benefited many, the fact remains that we have established and normalized the practice of warehousing older people for profit. Industry, by definition, is a group of businesses that produce particular kinds of goods or services and are typically classified based on their most significant sources of revenue.

Here, There and Everywhere

For the senior living industry, older people equal revenue. It is not my intent to dismiss or diminish the contributions of thousands of hardworking, loyal people who have dedicated themselves to providing quality care and support to those in senior living communities. I commend these assiduous individuals and have tremendous gratitude and appreciation for them. Segregating older people is structural ageism. And both are standard practices. Activities and social events are often coordinated separately, so there is little chance for intermingling. The result is a structural system of marginalization within an already marginalized group. It is a microcosm of separateness. And this microcosm perpetuates fear of aging, fear of disability, and fear of dying. She provides detailed examples of how communities not only discourage but also prohibit residents with physical and cognitive limitations from dining or participating in activities with functionally independent residents. She describes the structural hierarchy within these communities’ confines that prioritizes the most active and fosters separateness of the frailest. Senior living campuses are built to separate based on ability and need by design, as this helps create efficient and effective physical environments that are safe for residents and staff members alike.

Take Another Look

Have you ever heard an older person say something like, I don’t want to live/socialize/interact with all of those old people!? Psychologically separating yourself from others within your peer group is an outcome of fear and perceived stigma. And the physical separation maintained within senior living communities by design feeds that fear. Of course, fear of loss of ability can be emotionally triggering and personally disconcerting. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge and understand how our fears of loss and dependency are societally reinforced. Growing old in a culture of manipulation requires a deeper exploration of the imperceptible forces that live beyond the edges of our consciousness. Rather than looking within to create a personalized definition of success, we blindly accept societal norms that equate success with wealth, status, independence, marriage, children, career, longevity, and more. Success in aging is no different. We reclaim our personal power when we begin to see the forces that shape our understanding of success. We then have the knowledge to actively and deliberately choose a definition for ourselves. What Is Successful Aging? The successful aging paradigm, along with related concepts such as active aging, positive aging, healthy aging, and optimal aging, postulated that the process of aging was heterogeneous, and a framework was needed focusing on modifiable health factors to differentiate a polarity between usual and successful aging. Usual aging was determined as incorporating typical and expected losses in physiologic functions experienced with age. Successful aging was delineated as the process of aging with minimal to no physiologic loss. And it did indeed help to accomplish that goal.