Article on older women, ageism and feminism

I am 79 , my grouse about being old is I have become invisible!! Anyone else noticed this happening? Perhaps I should wear purple, do not yet have a stick to drag along railings and don' t think I could spit!

I have to agree that I don't think feminism and ageism are the same thing.

I also want note that Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are the same age, and I think Judi is looking increasingly fab-u-lous.

It is my belief that Ms Lumley started turning the calendar back a very long time ago, and therefore, yes she certainly does look great for her age.

Lastly, I was so angered by the first sentence of the article, I stopped reading right there!! What an incredibly RUDE and short sighted person. I believe older women ARE exploited to their FULL worth, because everyone knows their value, but most people often won't admit how valuable that is.

By the way, I don't truly consider middle 60's to be SO old.

I think the author is betraying her own attitude to age. Clinging on by her fingernails, crossing over to the dark side.

The trouble with many articles in the press is that they are written by people who live in their own bubble but write as if they are speaking for all of us.

I'm looking forward to reading your article Suzi.

Oh dear, what a depressing article! I have just spoken on ageing at a conference in Montenegro entitled Well Over 50, organised by The Age of Happiness. The people, mostly women, I met were an absolute inspiration, from a 97 year old yoga master who still dances every day & wears high heels to a 55 year old living in the Arctic with her Eskimo husband and dances on ice! None of them are slipping away slowly & silently and none of them had any surgical intervention! There's no need to take the attitude of the author of that pessimistic article. We are at an age where we can be and do anything we like and I for one feel vibrant, healthy & certainly not useless & invisible! This is one of the best times of my life, in my 60s. More on my blog:http://www.alternativeageing.net that I hope will inspire. Meanwhile, I will be writing for Gransnet soon. Suzi x

N----- S----------!!!! I can't even say the name. Ugh!!!!!!

I am nervous about any essential surgery, so having something done for vanity that is not essential is beyond my comprehension.

although I wouldn't mind having my eyes done

Nicola Sturgeon is much younger than us, though - although she has improved her rather dumpy plain looks by losing weight, having a new hair cut and wearing smarter clothes.
thinks .....

We who are not 'lifted' don't know what it all feels like. Remember Barbara Bush? She had a permenent smile and it was impossible for her to look grieved after 9/11. I can imagine your face feels tight and I wouldn't like it.
Looking young is nothing to do with feminism.
It is having your daughters in as good jobs as your sons have and equal pay etc.

I think most women of the same age could/would look like Helen Mirren, et al. mentioned if they had the same amount of time and money to spend, and the team of experts around them. Priscilla Presley is an example of far too much plastic surgery. You'll never see them with hair needing its roots doing. The makeup and clothing we see them wearing on the red carpet is only to be worn for a short time and constantly touched up between shots. And photos like the ones Twiggy does for M&S are heavily photoshoped.

To me there's a big difference between well maintained and looking unnaturally young for your age. Judy Dench looks great, but has pretty awful dress sense - although it makes her more like the rest of the us. I'm struggling to think of a woman in the public eye who I think looks good and the one who comes to mind is Nicola Sturgeon. A surprise to me.

I think Twiggy and Joanna Lumley (both in my generation) look wonderful for
their age.

I wonder what that kind of continual maintenance costs??

My nice hairdresser was awestruck at a photo shoot of Priscilla Presley in Hello or some such mag.
He thought she looked absolutely amazing, wonderful etc etc. When I said 'She's the same age as me I think' his jaw dropped.

Bless .... (as they say these days)

Well said well said Mollie and Marmark 1.....Myself and DH ran our own
Firm for 40 years and I have been a Rotarian for a good number of years also. Believe me when you operate in a mans world intellect and stamina
come far above pulchritude.....' it don't help when you have to think on the
Hoof'!!!!!

Priscilla Presley looked like a wax mask on the One Show, she couldn't smile or laugh naturally. I much prefer Maggie Smith with her wrinkles and beauty from within!

Good grief! I can assure the writer of this article that as I grew up in the 1960s and fought my feminist corner then, I refuse to be seen as losing my value now. More fool us if we go along with this type of twaddle.

If people say I don't look my age I tell them this is what 66 looks like. I have been young, middle aged and now I am old I assume.. That is life why fight it?

Mouraann, well said.Those plastic surgery enhanced,people look like freaks most of the time.Pricilla(who is not called Presley grrrr) included.Did anyone see Maggie Smith on tv.She was asked about roles for older women,she dismissed it,"they've been saying that for years"she said.Judy Dench is my all time hero,How many times do you need to be told,Real beauty comes from within.Strong women do it alone.

What a daft article!

It makes me mad that we think looking young is a good thing. I wish, instead, we'd celebrate how healthy someone looked and how active they were or intelligent, all the things that really matter more than how much effort over make-up and hair has been taken.

It was interesting to see Twiggy on the Beatles countdown programme. TV can't be air brushed. She looked very nice, but her age.

x

Maggie, Judy and Mary are comfortable in their own skin, they are all
icons who attained the pinnacle of success and have the self confidence
and poise that people with great talent exude. No need for fripperies!!!!

I added Pricilla Presley to my hit list of "women who look wonderful despite being older."

Helen Mirren, Twiggy, Sharon Osborne, Joan Collins etc are all on my hit list.

However Maggie Smith, Mary Berry and Judy Dench seem to be aging in their own sweet way if I am not mistaken.

They really don't do much in support of the sisterhood.

Good try jingl
I am not really any the wiser as to what the sentence is talking about though

Internal self perception, should have said.

"internal perception" I think might mean how we feel on the inside. And that can't be the 'sole arbiter of truth'.

Yes. It's unfair that women get a physical cut-off point biologically, with the menopause. HRT all round?

I must be more than usually dim today.

Can anyone explain to me what the sentence
"Unfortunately older women have come to symbolise everything that contemporary feminism seeks to deny: biological necessity, the body, the limits of internal self-perception as the sole arbiter of truth."

actually means , in particular the phrase 'internal perception as the sole arbiter of truth'
Preferably in words of one syllable.