“#Women, it’s time to age disgracefully…” [#geekgirl]
[Via The Guardian] “Feminism has encouraged us to accept our gender, our bodies, our sexuality and our desires. But rarely do we hear we have to accept our age. Amongst our protests against size zero, our growing admiration of plus-size models, and our education around Photoshop machinations, we’ve left the glorification of feminine youth intact. Being told you look younger than you actually are is still a form of flattery, an odd construct of a compliment that we are, happily, not what we appear to be. The value society places on women’s age has led us to feel shame about the most human of things – getting old. Age is a feminist issue, in the same way that gender, race, class, ability and sexual orientation are…
This is about much more than our sagging breasts, our pickled skin and our marching cellulite – it is about our growing voice, extinguished at the moment it has the most to say. And yes, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep might be great “older ladies” role models, but there are only a handful of actresses in similar positions, compared to their thousands of male counterparts.
Should we not fight to reclaim our worth, at all ages? Do we fear being called old and bitter? Enough. It’s time to age disgracefully. To do otherwise is to buy into the role society wants us to play – and it’s hard to get attention, dignified or not, once you’re invisible.”