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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/13/nigel-farage-bigotry-age-ukip-leader-older-people-anti-gay
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| No, Nigel Farage, bigotry doesn't increase with age | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Homosexuality makes most people over 70 feel uncomfortable, according to Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader was attempting to defend Roger Helmer, his candidate in next month's Newark byelection, who had claimed that some older people found homosexuality "distasteful if not viscerally repugnant". (Others would say that this was a better description of Ukip itself.) Farage clearly feels not only the need to protect the rights of prejudiced people of every stripe but also entitled to speak on behalf of most older people. In fact he was simply enacting the latest variant of how many people can you fit into a Mini: how many stereotypes can you fit into Ukip? | Homosexuality makes most people over 70 feel uncomfortable, according to Nigel Farage. The Ukip leader was attempting to defend Roger Helmer, his candidate in next month's Newark byelection, who had claimed that some older people found homosexuality "distasteful if not viscerally repugnant". (Others would say that this was a better description of Ukip itself.) Farage clearly feels not only the need to protect the rights of prejudiced people of every stripe but also entitled to speak on behalf of most older people. In fact he was simply enacting the latest variant of how many people can you fit into a Mini: how many stereotypes can you fit into Ukip? |
| As it happens, Farage is wrong about acceptance of homosexuality diminishing with age. A recent Pew Research Centre study found that, in the UK, 79% of 18- to 29-year-olds thought that homosexuality should be accepted, as did 82% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 71% of those in the 50-plus group. Unless the older figure conceals a sudden lurch towards disapproval on our 70th birthdays, acceptance in Britain remains relatively constant across the age bands. In other words, age doesn't seem to be a significant factor in shaping attitudes to homosexuality. | As it happens, Farage is wrong about acceptance of homosexuality diminishing with age. A recent Pew Research Centre study found that, in the UK, 79% of 18- to 29-year-olds thought that homosexuality should be accepted, as did 82% of 30- to 49-year-olds and 71% of those in the 50-plus group. Unless the older figure conceals a sudden lurch towards disapproval on our 70th birthdays, acceptance in Britain remains relatively constant across the age bands. In other words, age doesn't seem to be a significant factor in shaping attitudes to homosexuality. |
| But we shouldn't be surprised that Farage caricatures old people in this way, for the discourse around age is very similar to that surrounding immigration: both old people and immigrants are "other", regarded as homogenous, monolithic groups – a different species (and God help you if you're an older immigrant). Of course we form attitudes to all manner of things when we're young, but this doesn't mean that they never change. Behind the characterisation of older people as anti-gay lies the notion that age brings a kind of mental sclerosis and calcifying of ideas. | But we shouldn't be surprised that Farage caricatures old people in this way, for the discourse around age is very similar to that surrounding immigration: both old people and immigrants are "other", regarded as homogenous, monolithic groups – a different species (and God help you if you're an older immigrant). Of course we form attitudes to all manner of things when we're young, but this doesn't mean that they never change. Behind the characterisation of older people as anti-gay lies the notion that age brings a kind of mental sclerosis and calcifying of ideas. |
| In reality older people are confronted by change on a daily basis: changes in cultural values and changes in their own bodies and physical capacities. The ability to adapt is a key attribute that enables us to grow through the ageing process. If we're going to indulge in age stereotyping it's more likely to be young people who are convinced of the correctness of their views than older people, who've witnessed such transformations both socially and personally. But of course older people are no more a homogenous group than young: bigotry doesn't discriminate on the basis of age. | In reality older people are confronted by change on a daily basis: changes in cultural values and changes in their own bodies and physical capacities. The ability to adapt is a key attribute that enables us to grow through the ageing process. If we're going to indulge in age stereotyping it's more likely to be young people who are convinced of the correctness of their views than older people, who've witnessed such transformations both socially and personally. But of course older people are no more a homogenous group than young: bigotry doesn't discriminate on the basis of age. |
| Andrew Solomon's fine book Far From the Tree, winner of the Wellcome prize, shows movingly how parents can come to accept difference in their children, whether they're deaf, prodigies or gay – what he calls "learned happiness". We may not be infinitely malleable, but the human capacity to change is awesome – the legalisation of gay marriage is already demonstrating that. It's still startling to hear a man talk of his husband or a woman of her wife.(I wish people of every sexual orientation used the ungendered word 'spouse' instead). In five years' time I'll bet you Roger Helmer's deposit most of us won't notice it, whatever the year of our birth. | Andrew Solomon's fine book Far From the Tree, winner of the Wellcome prize, shows movingly how parents can come to accept difference in their children, whether they're deaf, prodigies or gay – what he calls "learned happiness". We may not be infinitely malleable, but the human capacity to change is awesome – the legalisation of gay marriage is already demonstrating that. It's still startling to hear a man talk of his husband or a woman of her wife.(I wish people of every sexual orientation used the ungendered word 'spouse' instead). In five years' time I'll bet you Roger Helmer's deposit most of us won't notice it, whatever the year of our birth. |
| I've just come from talking to a group of older women – g.o.d. (Growing Old Disgracefully), founded in 1993. I asked them for their reaction to Farage's comments. They were unanimous: don't characterise people on the basis of age. As one of them put it: "It's about closed minds. But minds don't necessarily close with age." Another balked at the idea that you should excuse prejudice on the grounds of age, suggesting that people should be prepared to take responsibility for their views at any age. A third felt patronised by Farage's comments, as though most old people were halfway to Alzheimer's – not that this would inevitably make them prejudiced. | I've just come from talking to a group of older women – g.o.d. (Growing Old Disgracefully), founded in 1993. I asked them for their reaction to Farage's comments. They were unanimous: don't characterise people on the basis of age. As one of them put it: "It's about closed minds. But minds don't necessarily close with age." Another balked at the idea that you should excuse prejudice on the grounds of age, suggesting that people should be prepared to take responsibility for their views at any age. A third felt patronised by Farage's comments, as though most old people were halfway to Alzheimer's – not that this would inevitably make them prejudiced. |
| One other fact doesn't seem to have occurred to Farage: that many over-70s are themselves gay. Some had to conceal the fact when they were younger (and others became virulently homophobic instead). Indeed there are now so many older women coming out as lesbians that the phenomenon has acquired its own moniker – Out Late. Some of them might even live in Newark. | One other fact doesn't seem to have occurred to Farage: that many over-70s are themselves gay. Some had to conceal the fact when they were younger (and others became virulently homophobic instead). Indeed there are now so many older women coming out as lesbians that the phenomenon has acquired its own moniker – Out Late. Some of them might even live in Newark. |