Look Your Age
Lately I’ve been getting the comment, “you look great for your age.” Now, I know that’s supposed to be a compliment, but it makes me sad. What is so bad about looking like an older woman? I love what Jamie Lee Curtis said when an interviewer asked her why she didn’t touch-up her photo on the front cover of a popular magazine. She said that she’s not ashamed of being 50 so there’s no reason to make it look like she’s 20. That simple act of courage made a huge impression on me and made me feel less fearful of growing older. Counter that with this statistic: Three minutes of looking at a fashion magazine makes 70 percent of all women feel depressed, guilty and shameful.
As we all know, the advertising and beauty industry have billions of dollars vested in our feeling bad about ourselves. Best selling author and lecturer Marianne Williamson says, “Society programs us, through the subliminal messages of popular culture, to believe we’re not truly desirable as women unless we adhere to the current standards of physical beauty.
Instead of giving into this view, how about we limit our exposure to mainstream media and listen to inspiring messages from women in their middle years…people like media and film critic Jan Wahl.
newwrinklethemovie 
Certainly women of a certain age tend to be viewed less for their abilities, talents and accomplishments than their looks in the contemporary media. It’s even far more harmful to younger women and girls who are highly impressionable. Check out this column in today’s Marin Independent Journal on the issues teen girls have to contend with regarding their appearance: http://www.marinij.com/opinion/ci_19974073