Henrietta Hay's Column

I'm starting a campaign to get rid of the term, "little old ladies." It conjures up a vision of a tiny, gentle white-haired female without a brain in her head, dressed in lavender lace walking daintily with the help of a cane. I don't really know anybody like that. My grandmother matched the physical description, but brainless and gentle she was not.

The term suggests that a whole generation is a little bit inferior, not very useful, and fussy. This is a lot of foolishness and I feel qualified to protest it because I am a "little old lady."

I was discussing my dislike for the term recently with a friend as we walked our three miles and felt like anything but little old ladies. We decided another word was needed for women over 50 or 60 or 70 or whatever the cut off age is, but we had some trouble finding one. One idea was an acronym. Perhaps LOLITS would do it. That should keep everybody guessing. It stands for Little Old Ladies in Tennis Shoes. We would, of course, have to be careful not to get confused with Lolita.

I don't like "Senior Citizens". It sounds like a political party. "Seniors" is not too bad since it refers only to age and not to a social, economic or political class. After all, "Babies" and "Children" and "Teenagers" refer only to age so why not "Seniors?" It's a long jump from "Teenagers to Seniors," but we could call those people in between "Juniors." Nah - I really don't like

"Seniors" either. We might get confused with a class in High School.

My real favorite is on the front of a T-shirt I wore during the activist seventies, "Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society." I doubt that would have universal appeal.

I don't see why we have to use any distinctive word at all. Except that as LOLITS we don't always move as fast or hear or see as well as we did once, our interests are the same as anybody else's. We're Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, Bronco fans or not Bronco fans, male or female.

As Americans we have that awful compulsion to stereotype everybody, to put everybody in a box and then label the box. A friend of mine is filling out an application for a meeting she wants to attend. Among the questions she has to answer are, "What are the main issues facing the country today? How do these problems relate to senior citizens?" Well, about the same way they relate to everybody else. I am every bit as much concerned about the federal deficit and the educational system and, yes, Social Security, as my kids are.

So I really object to being labeled a little old lady. It is an obsolete term. Many of the women I most admire have continued to be strong, active and creative well into old age. One would never have called Margaret Mead a little old lady, or Eleanor Roosevelt or Mary

Calderone or Betty Friedan or Millicent Fenwick or Georgia O"Keefe. Admiral Grace Hopper retired for the second time from the U. S. Navy at the age of 80 as one of the pioneers of modern computer systems. Her advice to young women, whom she defines as anyone half her age is, "It's a good idea to go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than get permission." Now that's not "little old lady" stuff.

Jenny Joseph, whose age I don't know, wrote, "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple - With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me. - . . . But maybe I ought to practice a little now? - So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised - When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple."

I'd rather have no label, but if we have to have one, I like Caroline Bird's "salty old woman." She says you are a salty old woman if "you express your opinion even when out-numbered, and speak up in public, are always learning something new, and wake up each morning wondering what's going to happen."

I'd much rather be a salty old woman in purple with a red hat than a little old lady. But it would be nice if we could be just people without the labels.