Things that were once cool, but today scream "old geezer/ette"

One heck of a lot of oldsters get pretty long-winded. And love to chat up anyone they encounter. Such as the store clerk when you’re next in line.

So the jump from “long-winded” to “long-winded due to age” to “aged” is a pretty easy transition.

^ Totally agree with the remarks about Harley Davidson bikes. I think of HD riders as old, fat, and about as uncool as it’s possible to be on a motorcycle and I’ve known quite a few over the decades. I don’t know what’s gonna happen to the brand long term but they kind of dug themselves into a hole when they started marketing their products to older, wanna be ‘cool bikers’. Now they’ve created this image that isn’t gonna be easy to shake because they spent so much time and advertising nurturing it. And yeah, their ancient technology and huge price tag isn’t doing them any favors either. Personally I’d be glad to see them go, I consider them an embarrassment.

Speaking of which, as i opened this thread, i thought, “calling a female something a somethingette sounds really old fashioned to me.”

I did that. I have a sore place on my right shoulder that I’ll “enjoy” for the rest of my days. Saw a physical therapist years ago, who told me exactly that ^^ (and though I didn’t want to believe her at the time, boy howdy was she right) and called it something like “permanent soft tissue damage” or thereabouts.

So, uh, wear your backpack on both shoulders, kids.

Windsurfing. Was considered the ultimate daredevil sport in the 1980s, but today it’s a thing for middle-aged/slightly elderly men, many of whom began doing it during or shortly after that 1980s craze and stayed. The daredevil reputation has now been taken over by things like kitesurfing, or, more extreme, wingsuit stunts.

Contrast with classical surfing, ie waveriding, which is older than windsurfing and has, at least in my impression, and “old school” reputation to it: Old but classy.

That’s brings up a very interesting point.

I agree 100% that whatever-ette is archaic and offputting. As are the other rarer feminized suffix forms like -ess and -ix. Just say “no” to their use. With maybe a small carve-out for deliberate humor or irony.

But to me at least, “geezer” is one of those words that is inherently male. It’s not gender neutral. Instead it’s “male that subsumes the female”. And I think we all agree that “male that subsumes the female” is an even more archaic and offputting style of writing up with which we all should not put.

I’m sure there are other descriptive nouns like that. They’re not inflected as male, but the social connotation is strongly male.

Sorta like “waiter” isn’t explicitly linguistically male. But it is so strongly coded as male that we had to converge on the substitute term “server” to have a general purpose gender-free noun for somebody who works the floor of a restaurant.

To me at least, “geezer” is as male as “waiter” is. “Elder” or “crochety senior” are gender neutral. To me.

Not the only ones who have been in that spot:

  • If I don’t evolve my brand profile, I can’t create a new future customer base going forward.

  • But if I evolve my brand profile, I’ll likely lose a lot of my known reliable older base before I know if I’m succeededing in creating a new base.

(So instead they go for “lifestyle branding” that just cheapens the brand anyway.)

Can you say “Cracker Barrel”? :grin:

See also:

…or for that matter the whole style and persona of the late publisher in that photograph.

Yeah, I’m thinking when I was in college, everyone had component systems with big speakers, separate CD player, tape deck, tuner, amp, etc. To “share” music you physically had to hand someone a CD or make a mix tape.

I assume these days, people just play whatever they want to listen to on Spotify or whatever streaming service on a small Bluetooth speaker.

Well, there’s that onion that I wear on my belt. . .

Our language is sexist. All i can think of to pair with “old geezer” is “old hag”. Am i old enough to embrace hagdom?

I was easily the oldest person at a party Friday night the next oldest was 10 years younger than i am. (The youngest was a toddler, but maybe he doesn’t count. He wasn’t really a guest, just an accommodation so his parents could come.)

But it’s early in the morning, and I’m not very good at coming up with synonyms. Maybe someone else will have a better suggestion.

Alas, the feminine version of almost any derogatory slang comes off as harsher than the masculine.

what … you are telling me that geezerette is old-fashoned … and I tried to be extra progressive here, avoiding exclusive language … (those finer details may be/get lost on ESL-speakers)

whats next: will you tell me that ironing your jeans is also no longer modern??? I think NOT …

on a more serious note: Nurse seems the same - gender neutral - (but opposite) to waiter … It always catches me somewhat off-guard if we talk about a nurse and a man shows up (e.g. poor Alex Pretti) …

… geezering on, here …

It’s a minefield for sure. And the signals are a lot more subtle than those in languages with strong grammatical gendering.

Although languages, e.g. Spanish, with strong grammatical gendering don’t always align grammatical gender with biological gender. So that’s a different sort of minefield.

yep, la modelo (the [female] model) comes to mind …

(took me longer than I care to admit to get this sorted out, and I still struggle with “el agua” … :wink: )

I think crone is better than hag. Still not very good…

Got to work old biddy in there, and old maid. Do young people even use these terms anymore? Or (at last check) did youngsters start using boomers and Karen’s to describe us?

Ooh, old biddy. That’s perfect. Thanks!

(An old maid is never married, and may not be all that old, just past prime marriageable age.)

Boomer is okay, too, and has the virtue of being gender neutral.