I’m in bed, recovering from an operation, please excuse any typos.
I know that on Gransnet the age range of people is huge. However, I think that my observations apply to any generation, but I’d be interested to know what you all think.
My first crush was on a pop star, I won’t write his name here because that doesn’t seem fair.
This week I listened to one of his songs, and I Googled him now and wow, given that as a young man he was gorgeous - and I checked, he was even better looking than I remembered! He isn’t ageing well.
Now, that’s fine. I firmly believe that people should look however they want to, age however they choose to, wear whatever they choose (assuming it isn’t offensive).
We are fortunate enough to live in a society where we are able to express our individuality.
Looking at that male musician who, as I say, hasn’t aged that well, it got me thinking.
So much criticism is made of the way women age. If we choose to age naturally we become invisible, or when we are noticed we don’t look ‘good’ (even when we do)!
If we choose to have interventions in the form of injectables or surgery, people will criticise us for that too.
If we choose to ditch the hair dye and go grey naturally, we become crones.
When I look around me, at all of the women I know in middle age and beyond many, many of them are very beautiful.
Whereas, if I think of the men I know of similar ages, few of them have aged well, especially when compared to the women they are with.
Yet men do not face opprobrium for the way they look. They do not become invisible in middle age.
Should we rectify this imbalance? I think so, though you may not and it’s ok to tell me I’m wrong.
If we should how, as a society, can we begin to appreciate the beauty of older women? (Whatever their surgical or sartorial choices).
