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I'm 55, most people think I'm under 50 and I'll take that and be happy. I'm not going to be delusional and think I could pass for 10 or 20 years younger than I am. I do have the advantage of having no wife or kids, so I have the free time to be able to keep my fitness up, and I live in South Florida, so weather is never an excuse to not exercise.
I'm a Baby Boomer, and I have never asked anyone to guess my age. Personally I think it's rude to put someone on the spot like that. I do have a theory, though, about why someone of my generation would do this. When we were young, the media was falling all over itself to praise us. We were the new generation, we were breaking the rules, we were hip, we were cool, we were going to change the world. All this youth worship made an impression on our psyches. Now that we are old, we don't want to give up that image we have of ourselves as young people. So we flatter ourselves into thinking that we look younger than we really do.
There is some truth in this belief, actually. Our parents' generation aged faster than we did. They smoked cigarettes, drank too much, ate all the wrong foods, didn't exercise, and many of them didn't get regular medical and dental care because they lived in a time when there wasn't health insurance. My generation has benefited from medical advances and increased awareness of diet and lifestyle choices that our parents didn't have access to. On the whole we take better care of ourselves, and it shows. Now instead of being in the vanguard of youth, we are redefining old age.
The other night I was watching a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical from 1935. One of the supporting players was an actress playing an old lady who has a bad heart and dies during the movie. I looked up the actress and discovered that the "old lady" was only about 60 when she played the part! I would have thought she was 10 years older than me instead of six years younger.
Those of us who are old enough to remember the TV series The Real McCoys will remember the great character actor Walter Brennan as the family patriarch "Grandpappy Amos," who walked with a limp and talked like an old codger. Well, when the series went into production in 1957, Mr. Brennan was 62 or 63 years old, not even Medicare eligible! Today's man in his early 60s is likely to be in much better shape physically and have most of his teeth.
This doesn't make us better or superior in any way, of course, but perhaps some of our delusions of looking younger have some basis in reality.
This behavior isn't exclusive to the Baby Boomers. Any age cohort approaching middle age (like the Gen-Xers are now) will have people in it who want to beat the odds on how aging affects them.
I'm of that generation. I've never come across that little guessing games the OP is talking about. I've been asked my age, of course, but nobody ever asked me to guess their age after that. Personally, I look my age, and haven't tried to look younger so far. But if I could figure out how to have a slightly more flattering drivers license photo, I suppose I'd think about doing something, as long as it didn't involve surgery, a lot of money or involve any treatment like Botox. I HATE those DL photos!
I don't like to be put in uncomfortable positions, having had several occasions in which an older woman harangued me into guessing her age. Thinking I was doing them a favor by knocking off 5-10 yrs more from what I thought they were... turns out they were still younger but insisting they looked fantastic & oh, so youthful for their ages. They were hurt, I was young & uncomfortable that they put me in that situation... I wouldn't bother with that nonsense today & would just say, "No, I couldn't possibly guess" & walk away.
What I've found is that those who fish for compliments are often not what they profess to be. "Hey, do I look fat in this?" or "I look far younger than my age. Guess my age!" are q's each individual already knows the answer to, I believe, but wants public approval because it's lacking in their personal lives. Stop & don't put me in the middle of your ego massaging or self esteem issues or whatever else it is you're going through. Anyone who's asked either q, in my experience, is too heavy for their outfit or does indeed look older than their age & we both knew that before they asked. I don't know why some people seek their comfort in strangers.
And, as others have said, I have met men who've lied about their ages... either they were 10 or 15-yrs older. They did look in good shape, but come on... we all know what 35 or 45 or 50 or xx is, even if one is in great shape. I don't like liars & if someone is going to begin lying upfront, it's an indication of character flaw and/or insecurity and/or something I don't wish to step into & I've learned to move on.
Patience is something I have in spades... but, not when one is game playing.
I remember when I was a teenager and worked in a store after school and weekends. There were two women shopping and I could tell they were having a fun day. They walked up smiling and said "we've been friends for such a long time, you'll never guess our age" I stood there said hello and smiling but didn't know what to do ? (When I was a teenager in the 70s - teenager were teenagers) They kept on asking me, it was awkward, and they said beaming, we're 40 ! I thought gee, glad I didn't say anything because I was going to say 45 - Whew ! I was glad that was over !
70's Music Girl, PatanjaliTwist has the right idea. Just say "I couldn't possibly guess." My answer to someone who wants me to guess their age is always to say that I'm terrible at guessing ages, which is the absolute truth.
I have to laugh, because yesterday I was at the gym, waiting for my belly dance class to start, and a newbie showed up and started enthusiastically talking about the class and how she wants to do things that cause people to say "wow, I can't believe you are a 66 y.o. grandma!" (her words) She said this a couple times, sort of fishing for me and my friend to affirm that we couldn't believe her age, but we couldn't because she looked exactly her age. But at least she didn't make us guess, she told us upfront. LOL
I totally agree that in nearly all cases people will look close to their age even if they look great for whatever age that is. I take care of myself and think I look pretty good compared to others my age, and there may be those who think I look a bit younger. And like Stepka says, on a good day with my makeup and the right clothing and lighting I CAN look a lot younger. But out in the bright sunlight or fluorescents and especially with no makeup - fuggeddaboutit. LOL
The bottom line, many of us have a hard time accepting aging. Our society does not put value on being older like other cultures do. We start feeling less worthy. Or some don't want to face mortality. Many things going on here.
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