An actress is suing, because some one printed her age.
Advertisements tell women they can take ten years of if they use their product.
I have never been much good at telling another's age.
But both men and women, seem to want to stay, Botox and other help, young forever.
I am 66 years old, feel forty, but parts of me are about 100.
I care little about changing the reality's of life death and aging.
Can we avoid anything by pretending we are other than the age we are?
While I live I grow, and hopefully learn to.
But like me my body ages and in truth lying to the world will change nothing.

Dear Belly,

Unfortunately our society does not take
into account individual differences, and instead treats
all people over a certain age as though their age is
their single most important characteristic.

Therefore the subordinate status of people over a certain
age, like that of racial minorities, has been assumed
to be rooted in biological characteristics,
specifically, it is held
that the mental or physical abilities of people over a certain
age - are so diminished that they are unable to
play a full role in society and may therefore be excluded from
significant participation. The reliance on negative
stereotypes about the minority concerned is therefore
maintained.

For example it is widely believed that people over a certain
age are not such productive workers as the young. Actually,
older people have better job attendance and productivity
records. There are a variety of beliefs about the
typical personalities of older people -
beliefs that either ignore the vast differences among
people - for after all, individuals grow more different not
more similar as they age, or have no basis in facts whatsoever.

Ageism against older people is often subtle, but it is pervasive.
Take television commercials. Almost all adds present youthful,
attractive, active people. When older characters appear, they
are likely to have health problems and be promoting health related
devices.

Advertising, like so many other aspects of the media
often reflect the "fountain of youth" theme that courses
through our culture in which people are encouraged to believe that
creams, soups, lotions, colourings, vitamins, diet pills,
exercise machines, sports cars, or whatever will make them
look like a young adult forever. It is therefore no wonder
that some people prefer not to say how old they are. They
don't want to be pigeon-holed into a stereotype image of
something they're not.

cont'd ...

Again, apologies for the typo - It should be
soaps - not soups, in the last paragraph.

It's fascinating how Western culture seems to devalue older members of the community. Like infants, older children, and anyone else not directly participating in the "workplace" they appear to be relegated in many cases to instituionalised care.

Most cultures if viewed in a traditional perspective revere their elders because they recognise they are the receptacles of wisdom in the community...strange how our society doesn't conform to that perspective.

Belly
There does seem to be a pre-occupation with vanity in recent times but preoccuption with beauty has always been around (those darned biological imperatives again). Technology makes beauty more accessible or the illusion of beauty in some of the amazing claims of skin creams. Maybe caveman/women also celebrated new technologies like the invention of the comb and how it made their hair look so much more radiant and silky. :)

Technology means people can access the latest cosmetic procedures even though many come with a small risk. Even men are going in for hair transplants, plastic surgery and hair dye. Why either men or women respond to these pressures I can't fathom but each to his/her own.

Lexi
My mum always said soup was good for you. ;)

No way Hosay, it's disgraceful all the way for me, thanks.

I had far too long in middle age gracefully bringing up kids & paying mortgages to be prepared to be that way at the end.

The hair is white, most of the teeth are in a landfill somewhere, & even the eyebrows are starting to go white, but I've still got it, what ever "it" is.

Yes Lexi I've got the cars, but not for how they make me look, but for how they make me feel. They aren't mid life crisis things, I'm far too old for that. They are both convertibles, I'm having trouble getting into low cars with roofs these days, but once in I'm one with the world.

There's the modern fast one, that gets me past Ma & Pa Kettle, on their way into town in their modern shopping trolley, but there's also the good one. Not quite as old as me, & slower than Ma Kettle's shopping trolley, but oh how it feels, just like the old days.

I have fitted modern high performance brakes, & tyres, & for this summer I weakened & fitted air conditioning, but it's still an old sports car.

It is fun sometimes when I park, & see in the rear view mirror, a couple of chicks checking out me & the car. They pull in their stomachs & throw out their chests, only to sag back to normal, when I get out & turn around. Still there's quite a few Ma Kettles, & lots of kids who admire my old lady.

My son offered to fit power steering, but hell, with that, I would need Lexi's exercise machine, or a gym membership. With my old fashioned steering I can have my fun, & get an upper body workout simultaneously.

So sorry Belly, & Lexi, I'll still be pumping CO2 into the air for a while, but then, someone has to feed all those trees in the Boarder ranges national park, don't they. Perhaps you should "come up & join me some time", as the famous lady said.