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I am about ten years younger than the youngest baby boomers. I can't believe that people like Christie Brinklie and Suzanne Somers are over the age of 60. They look so young.
I see people like Debbie Boone ("You Light up My Life") advertising for "lifestyle lifts" which I guess are facelifts.
And there are numerous ads for anti-aging products for women and men.
And then there are the medicine ads for men with certain ED issues.
And now there are numerous ads for adult diapers, showing young men and women dancing around in evening attire while supposedly modeling adult diapers.
Obesity is now considered a disease.
My question is sincere and I am not putting down baby boomers. I think as a generation they are not willing to go gracefully into that dark night and will fight aging every step of the way.
However, I always thought it would be a great time in older people's lives to let their hair go grey, put on a little weight, and just wear comfortable clothes and relax about their appearance.
Isn't it exhausting for 60 year olds to try so hard to maintain the appearance of a 20 year old? What's wrong with being 60? And looking 60? Healthy is a good thing. Why try to strain yourself or use drugs to keep up appearances that your body hasn't changed in forty years? My grandparents and great-grandparents were healthy from gardening and walking and RELAXING and not working so much.
I am about ten years younger than the youngest baby boomers. I can't believe that people like Christie Brinklie and Suzanne Somers are over the age of 60. They look so young.
I see people like Debbie Boone ("You Light up My Life") advertising for "lifestyle lifts" which I guess are facelifts.
And there are numerous ads for anti-aging products for women and men.
And then there are the medicine ads for men with certain ED issues.
And now there are numerous ads for adult diapers, showing young men and women dancing around in evening attire while supposedly modeling adult diapers.
Obesity is now considered a disease.
My question is sincere and I am not putting down baby boomers. I think as a generation they are not willing to go gracefully into that dark night and will fight aging every step of the way.
However, I always thought it would be a great time in older people's lives to let their hair go grey, put on a little weight, and just wear comfortable clothes and relax about their appearance.
Isn't it exhausting for 60 year olds to try so hard to maintain the appearance of a 20 year old? What's wrong with being 60? And looking 60? Healthy is a good thing. Why try to strain yourself or use drugs to keep up appearances that your body hasn't changed in forty years? My grandparents and great-grandparents were healthy from gardening and walking and RELAXING and not working so much.
I am a baby boomer. I am fifty one. I'll speak for myself.
When my grandmother was my age, she dressed frumpy and her hair was completely gray. She wore big glasses and old lady looking dresses. In fact, here's a photo of her at that age:
She is MY AGE in this photo! Sorry, but I don't want to look like that right now. She looked frumpy and like an old lady for FORTY YEARS (she lived till she was nearly ninety).
At a very healthy fifty one, I could easily live forty more years. That means I've got nearly half my life ahead of me. I enjoy life. I enjoy fashion. I like being attractive, and keeping myself attractive. I'm not ready to be an old lady yet.
Sixty is the new forty - haven't you heard?
New technology hasn't just extended our lives - it's given us the ability to FEEL younger and more energetic longer. And that's a good thing, because most of us won't be able to retire at age 55 or even 65 in the current economy. Also, since many of us are living longer lives, the odds of us becoming a widow or widower, or getting a divorce, increase over time. I know many older people who have fallen in love in their later years and want to look good AND feel good and enjoy these new relationships.
I myself remarried at age 43. I really enjoyed being single in my forties and dating - and falling in love and remarrying! So I am in a "young" marriage of only seven years, married to the love of my life. We're not ready to be old yet.
Finally - I have to ask you this - why do you think it's less important to older people to look their best? As a woman, I can assure you - looking good doesn't become any less important in your fifties than it is in your twenties and thirties. It just becomes a bit more challenging! But if a person loves fashion and enjoys looking polished and pulled together when they are younger - that facet of their personality doesn't necessarily change as they age. I loved scarves and accessories and cute jackets and boots when I was in my twenties - and I still love them. The good thing is - now I can afford much nicer ones!
I look at photos of my grandmothers and great grandmothers smiling, like yours is in the photograph, and I don't see them as "old." I see them as HAPPY and SMILING and enjoying life (and not spending their children's and grandchildren's inheritance on Botox and bleached hair.)
I look at photos of my grandmothers and great grandmothers smiling, like yours is in the photograph, and I don't see them as "old." I see them as HAPPY and SMILING and enjoying life (and not spending their children's and grandchildren's inheritance on Botox and bleached hair.)
Meh.
No one is entitled to an inheritance... it is their money to do with as they wish! And if they want to spend it on themselves, so be it.
When my grandmother was my age, she dressed frumpy and her hair was completely gray. She wore big glasses and old lady looking dresses. In fact, here's a photo of her at that age D
No one is entitled to an inheritance... it is their money to do with as they wish! And if they want to spend it on themselves, so be it.
I was joking about the inheritance.
Regardless of how great or young one feels or thinks they look, most young people still do not consider those of us over the age of 60 to be "young."
Sure people comment how great a 60 year old woman like Christie Brinklie looks "for her age" but no one doubts that she isn't young anymore.
So, my question is, if you aren't in show business like Christie Brinklie and making a return on investment for pouring money and time into looking younger, than what is the value of that?
Families loved older gray haired people regardless of how they looked in the past as they aged and became infirm, so why fight the appearance of aging today?
...When my grandmother was my age, she dressed frumpy and her hair was completely gray. She wore big glasses and old lady looking dresses. In fact, here's a photo of her at that age:
She is MY AGE in this photo! Sorry, but I don't want to look like that right now. She looked frumpy and like an old lady for FORTY YEARS (she lived till she was nearly ninety).
I would hazard that she was dressing like most women of her era dressed, etc. at that age. "Frumpy"? Well, by your standards, of course; but I expect that she was quite normal and acceptable for her time.
Clearly, you would not wear those clothes, nor would you wear that hair style...but then decades have passed since that photo was taken. And I doubt too that she would have dressed like her grandmother either - and would it have ever occurred to her in her wildest dreams that she should.
I really don't understand why you would be making the assumption that anyone would expect you to look like your "frumpy" grandmother today. The only people who want to affect the clothes and styles of their grandparents are the Amish.
My sense of what the OP is getting at, and perhaps I am wrong, is the incredible struggle that so many people make to try and make the clock actually seem to stop....to appear to be younger than they are. My grandmothers dressed in nice looking clothes and neither colored their hair nor wore much makeup, and I never had any sense that looking younger than their years was of any importance to either one. My mother was very concerned with her appearance all of her life, but her focus was never on looking like she was some age other than the one she was. Her focus was on fine clothes, good grooming, a reasonable weight and hair styling, but again I never had the sense that she wanted to be anything other than a very well turned out woman of her age.
It is embarrassing how many women currently in their fifties have the appearance of over-the-hill street walkers.
The entire skew of Anglo-American society by the Eighties had become pitched precariously toward chronological youth and its activities as the measure of all things....which probably explains why so many Baby Boomers have been sucked into acting like early post-adolescents, as well as trying to look like them. I don't see the simulacrum of Youth in these people, I see Desperation incarnate.
There is no fool like an old fool trying to look like a young fool.
No one wants to look their age, in today's society. Maybe it's the media, times changing, etc. No one wants to look old.
But styles have changed too. Like the photo Kathryn put up, that was a normal style for a woman that age at that time, but times change and styles, so it's not the norm today.
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