How to beat the wrinkles and look great over 80!

For too long, both verbal and visual language have been used to dehumanise older people and to portray ageing in a predominantly negative light. These attitudes to ageing have been brought sharply to light by the coronavirus pandemic, with suggestions that older people’s lives are ‘less valuable’ than the young, or even that a ‘cull’ of the elderly could be a good outcome of the crisis.

These are the most extreme examples, but the association of later life with frailty and decline, and the view that older people are a burden on society, are deeply ingrained in the language we use to talk about age and ageing. And perhaps just as influential as the language we use is the imagery we see, and the ways older people are represented visually in the media.

Visit almost any stock image website and search for the word most commonly associated with people in later life - 'elderly' - and you'll see a plethora of images that are quite frankly outdated and deeply rooted in harmful stereotypes. They range from one extreme to another: from a glossy image of an affluent older person relaxing on a cruise ship to a pair of 'wrinkly hands' gripping a walking stick.

This phenomenon isn't new, nor is it limited to image libraries. There's a dearth of realistic images on news websites and in magazines where older people are the focus of the story or advert. Stories that reference ageing or older people are often illustrated with these sort of images, disregarding any of the person’s qualities beyond their wrinkles.

There's of course nothing inherently negative about wrinkles, nor should we object to images of people with walking sticks - except for the fact that these tropes have become synonymous with older people and reinforce negative stereotypes. Around 3.3 million people in the UK are aged 80 and over with a huge diversity of abilities, interests and backgrounds. And yet, the images we see of older people don’t represent that diversity. They fail to show people from underrepresented groups nor do they reflect the wide range of experiences of old age.

Look at the images in these libraries and ask yourself how accurately do they represent you or older people you live with, work with or meet in your community? As normal as it is (at least when we are not in lockdown) for people aged 65 and over to be active in communities - whether through voluntary activity or employment - image libraries seem disinterested in these activities. Instead they seem keen on portraying residents of care homes, when in fact more than 90% of people aged 65 and over live in mainstream housing. Or alternatively think that an older person is only worth photographing if they are skydiving or have run a marathon - undoubtedly a great achievement but perhaps not one that sets a realistic expectation of what healthy ageing looks like.

When people search for age-related images, they shouldn't be served up these lazy stereotypes. They should be able to access a wide range of images that realistically and positively represent the diversity of people in later life; not as a group of people that are defined by their age and society's outdated attitudes.

So we decided to do something about it. We’ve launched a new free image library, containing over 400 images of older people in a range of settings, showcasing the vibrancy and diversity of later life. We’ve also put together a simple guide that lays out some basic tips to consider when commissioning work or capturing photographs, so that other organisations can follow suit. With more of us set to live for many years longer than previous generations, it’s time we tackled our negative view of ageing. Simple steps – like thinking more carefully about the images we use – will play a huge role in this shift.