With my pictures, I capture the fierceness of women over 40 (and up), with their fine lines, some with silver, grey hair and mostly just the way they naturally are, beautiful “older” women. #proaging
Yesterday I posted a picture on Instagram where I stated that I am not an anti-Botox, anti-fillers, or anti-plastic-surgery-activist. A little more on that in this article. From magazine covers to billboards, youth is glamorized as the image of beauty and the prime of life. We are inundated with the message that aging is something we should dread and perhaps even fight. And that is when a sense of rebellion starts to take a hold of me. Believe me, I was born to rebel, but in this case the words in my head “You can’t make me! …. ” take over.
I am anti-pressure, pressure about a lot of things in life, but especially pressure about aging, or better said, pressure to look (much) young (er) as if looking your own natural age means you aren’t beautiful enough. My biggest wish is to gracefully grow older, with lots of characteristic lines in my face (I already made a good start…), long white hair, and swinging hips. Of course, we all want to look our very best, our most beautiful, I do too, at any age! I have my hair done frequently, I buy nice clothes, have a manicure, and in today’s modern times, I can choose to soften the signs of aging.
When a woman feels she should do something about a (frown) wrinkle, or hanging eyelids, she should go right ahead, if that makes her feel more beautiful and therefore happy. It is known that people with a more positive attitude about their own aging, such as continuing to feel useful, comfortable in their own skin, and happy, live, on average, 7.5 years longer. And at the end of the day, it’s your body and your life, you should do whatever the * you want with it.
But … to see a woman struggle with the pressure of the media to artificially look 10 or 20 years younger than she actually is, does trigger an activist in me and I get pissy. We should never be pressured into looking years younger unless it’s because we follow a super healthy lifestyle, eat well, sleep well, exercise, and follow a healthy and acceptable beauty regime which results in a “looking incredibly beautiful, young and healthy FOR YOUR AGE.”
To desperately remove all lines from your face with Botox because the world thinks you should stay young forever? It’s a step too far for me. Not to speak of the “filling” of the sagging skin … at some point faces become completely deformed because so much skin has to be filled. But then there is the facelift and they pull back your hairline with 5 to 10 centimeters, a nice and new fresh look…
In my humble opinion, it’s time that topics like pro-aging, age positivity, aging naturally (with normal beauty adjustments that suit your age and face) get into the spotlight and receive positivity, especially in the (social) media. It’s time to be proud of the age you actually are, you earned it after living the life that you had. No reason to erase all tracks.
Guess this makes me an anti-pressure activist.
