Impossibly lovely grans.

Photos of women, houses, holidays, clothes, sex, or food don't make me feel inadequate as I am contented . I have been aware for years that advertisers try to make consumers feel inadequate, and so I don't believe lies.

Am I missing out, all I can see at the top of my page is an advert for an audiobook read by Stephen Fry!
But today one of the mums from the Toddler Group I run told me I “look good and really trendy in those colours”, I’ll settle for that!

Well O think Im happy and not toobad as a gran but Im vertainly not as glamorous as some of the models in the pics! I think it would be beytef to use 'real' grans!

I can work out what a lovely gran looks like, I am a very happy gran (most of the time) but what makes a successful gran? How do I know if I am one?

Here's to all the lovely, happy and successful grans who may or may not fit the stereotypical pic's!

Another lovely, happy and successful gran here . Not impossible at all!

Certainly if you look at gn through facebook each thread has an 'appropriate' picture. But the grans depicted are all very young and good looking (but with grey hair) - no doubt models- and bear little resmblance to most women of my age that I know. So I do agree about making one feel inadequate, but porn is not the word I'd use!

Indeed, rockgran. Every time there's an article about WASPI online it seems to feature a sad old lady gazing sadly out to the horizon or into an empty purse. By definition we WASPIs aren't even of state pension age yet!

There’s an advert for asbestos testing at the top of my page. It has a picture of some goggles and a dust protector to put over nose and mouth. ?
No airbrushed models to be seen!

Well if we are to be stereotyped I prefer to see grans as
"impossibly lovely" rather than "toothless crones".

I can't find any Grans, impossibly lovely or not. All I've got at the top of various pages are annoying adverts.

The essence of pornography is that while it is often nice to look at it also makes people feel inadequate

Well I really wouldn’t know never having felt the curiosity or need to watch porn.
I did read 50 Shades of Gray and that made me wonder how it’s possible to write with a complete absence of literary style and merit and still earn lots of money. It didn’t make me feel inadequate and I wasn’t tempted to try any new experiences ?

I sort of get where Alexa is coming from though. I’ve never seen any impossibly lovely grans on GN adverts, but they do feature, along with their still-sexy DH’s in adverts for retirement villages.
They’re the main reason I wouldn’t consider living in one ?

I would say, though, that those heading photos don't make me feel inadequate!

bluebell, DH took a photo of me recently in a rose arbour - very nice arbour but how did he get my mum in there!

Its a bit like a Mc Donald's burger... impossibly lovely but photographed with a 'model' we all know the reality isn't the same

POGS Alexahas explained the pornography reference in her second post. It is I think a valid argument. I certainly think some of the more radical grans I know would bring a much more diverse attitude to many of the subjects discussed.

Yes I think you are being unreasonable, I’m sure they use models, they are just advertisements after all, I’m sure if they had a photo of me at the top of the page, no advertisers would come near the site.
I think that we are all too intelligent to think that they ever going to use real people, at the end of the day, it’s to encourage advertising.

I saw a picture of my back view in a swim costume yesterday and my ‘lovely’ impression of me changed I ve lost my nice round bum I now have to erase the picture not only from my camera but my blooming mind

Still confused.

Are you still connecting GN to ' pornography images '?

ann ?

Completely agree N&G! I don't take a lot of notice nor do I take any notice of adverts in magazines, newspapers or on TV.

But on trisher's point, the imagery represents me (impossibly lovely!) so I am very comfortable with it and maybe only see it subliminally whereas someone of a different ethnic background would be struck by it bring different from her/him.

I'm not sure that is where the OP was coming from though.

A chicken wrap for me too.
I also am very lovely, beautiful actually, but as is said it is in the eye of the beholder and I am the one beholding.
Currently no-one else does so I have no-one to contradict me.

Couldn't find the pic's you're discussing but by clicking on Grandparenting I found one or two of older couples. Grans and grandads? Models in a photoshoot?
Pleasant-looking folk but not exceptional and not 'impossibly lovely'! Can't see the problem.

Just thinking about your post trisher and I think you make some good points. I wondered though , how many people judge a site by the images in the top banner?

Would they at least dip in to see what the meat of a site is about ?

It got me thinking because I wouldnt give the imagery a second thought and I wondered how many would be swayed ?

Well in the interests of objectivity I have scrolled through and looked at a lot of the images presented. There is I think a predominant theme of Grans having short grey hair and wearing pastel colours, and actually very few of the grans I know are like this. There are few pictures of Asian grans and one of a black gran. It would be nice to see some pictures of grans with different styles (I know some lovely arty grans who dress with style and colour). Some more ethnically diverse images (Do GNHQ not know how many mixed race families there are now?) and some younger grans.
Is it pornography or just thoughtlessness? Probably the later, but thanks for raising it Alexa. It would be sad if anyone looked at these images and thought "Oh that's not for me."