Every woman is unique in her own beautiful way, with her own unique story and traces of life. That’s exactly what I find so intriguing about women. As different as they are, all so beautiful in their own way.
Some studies show that the vast majority of older women in the media (moms, grandmas, aunts, bosses, teachers, queens, or any female character) over 40 fit a negative stereotype (source: Signorielli). And isn’t that joyless? The largest and quickly growing segment of our population is not seeing themselves represented, and when they do, it’s in negative ways? Wandering the internet looking for recent photos of celebrities is incredibly worrisome. All photos I encounter, of any female celebrity over the age of 40, are so clearly photoshopped that it hurts my eyes. But not only online, but we also see it in magazines, commercials, on television, or in the movies, you know what I mean, the 40+-year-old women with zero signs of aging. They have no lines or wrinkles, tight skin all over, no signs of grey hair, sparkling through their thick healthy voluminous hair. We rarely see an older woman in the media, but when we do, we are being fooled by cosmetic procedures and digital alterations.
Whether we like it or not, we start to look different as we age. But does different automatically mean less beautiful? It (almost) does at this point because we are all brainwashed by the beauty industry and the media to immediately stop, reverse, and hide the changes of aging, at all costs? Seriously, ALL costs! Financially, time-wise and health-wise we are going all the way to stay and look as young as we can, because we’re worth it… So if you really think about it, it’s very clear why we almost never see women with wrinkles and grey hair featured positively in any sort of mainstream media. Because wrinkles and grey hair doesn’t make anyone any money. So no wrinkled-grey-haired women are often featured positively in any magazine (or any other media) that depends on beauty advertising money, which is, well, all of them.
In my humble opinion, it is time for some change! I think it’s time to embrace our own beautiful reality and owning it for the others in our life. What would happen if confident, happy, beautiful aging women decide to forego painful and expensive anti-aging procedures? How would that change the way our younger female generation perceived themselves and their own aging, real faces, and bodies? How would simply owning our so-called “imperfect” aging faces and bodies affect not only our own lives but those over whom we influence? Is it possible to slowly but deliberately change the perception of aging?
The media will continue to hide women who do not fit the money-making beauty ideals, but we do not have to hide our own faces and bodies to meet those unreal standards. We can stop to maintain the idea that women should always look young and that women who don’t look young forever are not worth the trouble or are not beautiful. That will be much more powerful, way less expensive, and way less painful. #ANDBLOOM
