Are you ready for the Longevity Revolution?
Elderly, old, senior. Words that often bother, but, if all goes well, they are part of the life of all of us.
It is not necessary to think twice to realize that elderly people face a lot of prejudice, the so-called ageism. We often exclude them, treat them childish, underestimate them, we are impatient. From the joke about the delay in the bank line to “you are too old for this”, it is part of our daily lives to diminish older people. We live with negative images of old age and often the elderly are treated as if they are useless or less intelligent (in 2019, the Brazilian government received 102 complaints of agressions against the elderly per day). Prejudice helps to make these people and their contributions to society invisible. And it prevents us from paying attention to something decisive for all of us: the longevity revolution.
It is estimated that 31% of the Brazilian population will be over 60 in 2050. Brazil will, in absolute numbers, be the fifth nation with more elderly in the world.
“The future of longevity is not what it was yesterday. Growing old today is quite different. In 1945, when I was born, only 5% of people were over 60 years old. In the past, growing old was a privilege of the few, it was a challenge. In 2050, 31% of the Brazil’s population will be over 60 years old. This I call the longevity revolution. We will do, in a generation, what the oldest countries in the world have done in centuries. The longer life expectancy and the drop in birth rates in Brazil have made life go from being a 100-meter run to being a marathon. You don’t get there in the end in good condition, unless you train. For the first time in human history, there will be more elderly people than children — and this longevity revolution brings many opportunities and challenges for cities and society”, says Alexandre Kalache, gerontologist and president of the International Longevity Center Brazil.
Are you prepared? This is the theme of the exhibition City 60+ [Cidade 60+], conceived and produced by Folguedo, which brings different perspectives on aging and on the changes we need to live the Longevity Revolution. The exhibition, with which I collaborated as a writer, is an invitation for people of all ages to experience different everyday situations and discuss topics such as health, prejudice and accessibility for people over 60 years old.
What changes does society need for all of us to live well in the future? How to have active aging (which is a lifelong process)? City 60+ gathers inspiring testimonies on these issues from researchers such as Alexandre Kalache, Alexandre Silva, Angel Vianna, José Guajajara, Helena Theodoro, Jerson Lacks, Mirian Goldenberg and also from anonymous 5 to 89 year olds.
+ “An age-friend city is a city for all ages”: access the Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide, developed by Alexandre Kalache and Louise Plouffe with the World Health Organization.
+ Before conceiving the City 60+ Exhibition, Folguedo created the Accessible City, an interactive and informative exhibition to reflect on accessibility, inclusion and the ideal city that we need to guarantee everyone’s rights and autonomy.
The exhibition City 60+ was displayed at the UFRJ House of Science in September 2019 and gained an online version in 2020, with new content about the context of the covid-19 pandemic. After all, isolation was already part of the daily lives of many of the 30 million elderly people in Brazil, because they face prejudice and lack of mobility and accessibility in cities.
+ In Brazil, 75% of deaths by covid-19 are of elderly people. Low-income elderly people who live in nursing homes or depend on the State for protection are in a situation of greater vulnerability and can’t exercise their rights during the pandemic. The podcast “Fala, UNFPA”, from the United Nations Population Fund, addressed the challenges of Brazilian older people in the pandemic. Listen here [in Portuguese].
+ The “old-age-phobia” of the Brazilian government, which became even more explicit in the pandemic, is the theme of this Greg News episode. “Isolating the elderly” was one of the “solutions” proposed by the current president.
+ “It is necessary to fight prejudice against the elderly after the pandemic”, say experts. This live discussed the future of the elderly with epidemiologist Alexandre Kalache and youtuber Sônia Bonetti.
Ageism limits our vision and leads us to believe that elderly people are only “elderly”. But they are many other things as well. There are elderly people of different gender identities, sexual orientations, races, territories. These social markers of difference affect their lives intersectionally, creating even more complex challenges.
“Active aging involves good health, lifelong learning, participation and security. For most black people, these are distant aspirations. The socioeconomic conditions built from racial inequities lead to premature and bad aging”, writes Alexandre Silva, PhD in Public Health, professor and coordinator in the area of Race, Ethnicity and Aging at the International Center for Longevity in Brazil.
For many LGBT people, aging often means “going back into the closet”, for fear of further exclusion and prejudice. According to Carlos Henning, professor of Anthropology at the Federal University of Goiás, “most were kicked out their homes and lost the family support network. In addition, they face greater difficulties in the public health service”. The fact that many nursing homes are run by religious institutions represents an additional barrier for LGBT people who need the service. “It is common for trans people to have to undo the transition process, cut their hair, remove their prostheses and change their clothes to be accepted there.” All this mobilized the professionals who in 2017 created the NGO Eternamente Sou [I am forever], to attend the elderly LGBT population, offering free psychotherapeutic assistance in São Paulo and Florianópolis.
Elderly people are also diverse in their tastes, styles, political views, desires. A pleasant way to think about it and to know good stories may be to watch The Voice+. The current edition of the musical reality show is exclusively for talents with more than 60 years.
In this society that cultivates eternal youth, it is not enough not to be an ageist, it is necessary to be anti-ageist.
