Virtually no one wants to be called old, elderly, or senior
citizen
.
And it is not correct to call the elderly grandparents (they are only their grandchildren), retirees (not all are) or pensioners (some are young).
There are other synonyms and euphemisms to refer to older adults, such as seniors, veterans, or retirees.
But, as the sociologist and researcher María Ángeles Durán affirms, “
the claim names used by the elderly to refer to themselves are scarce
”.
Today, older is the name that arouses the most acceptance, but there is no shortage in the group of those who seek to find other terms that better define their life experience, in which they recognize themselves and with which they feel represented.
“In English, 'third age' is not pejorative and works for the transition to the fourth age”
One of the proposed terms is "sexalescence".
Photo illustration Shutterstock.
One of those proposed is
sexalescence
, which according to Manuel Posso Zumárraga, one of its main promoters, "
describes men and women who handle new technologies
, who dress in fashion, progressive, hard-working, active in sports, wanting to enjoy of life, learning, collaborating, traveling, meeting new people and owning their destiny, giving up their location as senior citizens”.
Another one of those new terms is
maturation
.
It is promoted, among others, by the Somosmadurescentes platform, made up of people "in that intermediate phase
between adulthood and old age
, and who fight against age stereotypes because they believe that what represents them is not their age, but their talent" .
Another of the new terms is "maturity."
Photo illustration Shutterstock.
Mar Forment, a professor of Hispanic Philology and an expert in lexicon, admits that
all the vocabulary linked to old age is quite reviled
, but at the same time she warns that these new terms have not managed to get people to appropriate them either and their use is minority.
“Today, senior is used more than sexalescent or maturescent, words of which there are references in
social networks
, but for the moment they do not even appear in neologism observatories,” said Forment.
Sexalescence describes men and women who handle new technologies.
Photo illustration Shutterstock.
In his opinion, before looking for a label for a certain group of people, the concept to be labeled should be well defined, "and
that concept of older adults but not the elderly is still being formed
."
The linguist explained that sexalescente and sexalescence are used more in Latin American Spanish, while in Spain more is used for maturescence and maturescence.
“Sexalescence has not been successful for two reasons;
Firstly, because it is too reminiscent of adolescence, which is associated with
immaturity
, and the elderly reject this idea for them;
Nor does it favor its use when it begins with
the prefix sex, which creates initial confusion because it recalls the infinity of terms associated with sexuality or eroticism
, ”Durán considered.
Sexalescente and sexalescence are used more in Latin American Spanish, while in Spain more is used for maturescence and maturescent.
Photo illustration Shutterstock.
Communication professor Manel Domínguez believes that the label with the least connotations for this population group is senior: "Senior equals knowledge, activity, experience."
The researcher Jeroen Spijker explained that in the Anglo-Saxon world they have also cornered words such as
elderly (elderly) because they consider it pejorative
, "but
third age continues to work because it does not carry as many negative connotations
as in Spain and now it can be reconceptualized as a stage of transition towards old age incorporating fourth age to refer to the group closest to the end of life”.
Third age continues to work because it does not carry so many negative connotations.
Photo illustration Shutterstock.
The sociologist Marcos A. Bote maintained that "in the Anglo-Saxon world they talk about aging, which does not refer to getting old, but to birthdays, and that blurs the negative connotations about age."
By Mayte Rius Barcelona, for La Vanguardia.
look also
Alpha, from Big Brother: age discrimination exists and is more common than you think
The keys to sexuality in the second half of life
Why you don't have to say "grandparents" to older people
Sex does not end at 60: tips to face the passage of time