This week there was an article in The Guardian by the 32-year-old Zoe Williams, who had donned prosthetic latex to make her appear to be in her eighties and allow her to experience life from the geriatric point of view.

There has been a rash of this kind of journalism recently. Hacks have struggled into fat suits, pushed prams, changed the colour of their skins and even draped burkhas over themselves, all in the name of research. Personally, I don't think much of this kind of journalism, science, or whatever you want to call it - for two reasons: it has never, to my knowledge, told us anything we didn't already know (in fact, it reiterates the bleeding obvious, that many people have many prejudices) and it seems to pander to the solipsism of modern thinking - things are only meaningful or can only be understood when they happen directly to 'me', the inescapable first person of literature.

Do we really have to grow rubber wrinkles to realise that many who should know better think old people:

  • are deaf, stupid, or both
  • can be made to wait
  • don't know what's good for them
  • are happy with poor service, inconvenience and low quality products
  • should be quiet and inconspicuous
  • have only themselves to blame if they can't handle the pace of a modern city
  • are not worth expensive medical treatment
  • have no pride (are smelly, dirty, dishevelled, poorly-dressed)

Do we really need to cover ourselves in adhesive liver spots to recognise that many people:

  • go out of their way to open doors
  • drive slowly near old people crossing the road (or offer an arm)
  • magic seats and glasses of water out of nowhere when an old person is waiting
  • spend time listening to and acknowledging not very coherent conversation
  • keep their noise to a minimum
  • revert to older more polite forms of address for speaking to old people

Come on! Either this kind of story is directed at the young and reckless, in which case it is an example of pearls before swine, or it is meant for older readers, who are in no need of reminders. Can't we just write about issues of prejudice objectively? I get the impression that we are both so jaded and so politically correct nowadays that dispassionate objectivity is perceived as lacking a hook and culturally embedded in western rationalism (whatever is meant by that).

Rather than writing 'I dressed up as an old woman and many people were nasty to me but some were nice', how about something more substantial like, for example, 'Time to speak up' the same Zoe Williams's recent article about abortion? Editors please take note!

Hah. I feel better now.