People seemed to resonate with my newfound term, which makes sense in our age of gender fluidity. After leaving the stage, I did a quick Google search. I found “age-fluid” nowhere to be found in a dictionary, except in the hipster URL Urban Dictionary, which had this definition: “something that justifies pedophilia.”

Wow, that was SO not what I meant when I used the term on stage. Then, I found all these ultra-conservative bloggers using the term to parody gender fluidity, as in, “if we can change our gender, why can’t we change our age?” I started to sour on the term.

But, then, like a Whack-a-Mole game at the carnival, “age-fluid” popped up again when I was leading a recent workshop, and the compadres gravitated to it. So, in that spirit, I decided to give the word a makeover, including a new definition, along with a reputation to live up to. Here goes:

Definition: Age-fluid (adjective)
Denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed age or being part of a specific generation.

Reputation:
Someone “age-fluid” might have been called “ageless” in the past. However, that definition (“never looking old or appearing to grow old”) doesn’t fit this context. Today’s age-fluid individual is perfectly content to be both younger and older than their chronological age. They look at ages (or stages of life) as dress-up identities that they can don like a costume or unrobe like a bathing beauty.

What do you think?