My Opinion: Picturing Aging

by Sara Myers

I recently worked with a great graphic designer to lay out a small ad for a publication that advertises "senior" services, mostly residential.  Even though the ad was small, only 1/6 of a page, it took hours of looking to get the right picture.

As I looked at the ads in the publication, I noticed that all of the old people looked kind of the same and not very old. Also, they weren't doing much kind of pretending to be "active," like meeting friends at the clubhouse at the golf course. And they were mostly white.

I was looking for a picture that showed an old person, I mean old, OLD person who was having a really good time, and looking kind of athletic. I looked at hundreds of images on a stock images website. 

Finally, probably out of frustration, my great graphic artist took over the search and found two images: one of a woman in leathers riding a Harley and the other of three women posing in bathing suits. Great Graphic Artist convinced me that the lady in leathers was too dark and the three women posing was a better picture. All the better, because these three ladies were really OLD. They had beehive hairdos, saggy arms and wrinkled legs. But here they were, and they looked great. That was my picture. 

I wondered why it was so hard to find the right picture. Is it because the media does not portray a positive image of being OLD?  OLD is weak and frail sometimes a comedic caricature.  65 is active, 85 is what? Invisible maybe. Is being OLD and acting and looking athletic mutually exclusive? Will I still feel athletic when I'm 80?

I have no idea how many athletic 80 year olds there are around.  But I'll bet my running bra that there will be a lot more as time goes on spandex, adhesive tape and all. At least I hope so. 

Sara Myers is the Director of Washington Adult Day Services Association