As part of the conversation on Ageless Beauty at the Estée Lauder Media Forum, I mentioned the negative connotations surrounding the term 'anti-ageng' and the fact that this way of thinking feels outmoded and should be challenged, and this phrase should definitely be changed. A brief discussion followed but we couldn't really come up with a suitable alternative - I was still reeling from the 'Having Botox is just like buying a new iPhone' conversation. Then the other day I came across a great interview with the model Cindy Joseph on Refinery 29. It's from 2013, so you may have seen it already but as I've been researching The Book, this subject has been on my mind. A lot. And I like what she says:
'We all grow up in an anti-age society. Ageing is considered a negative experience. As I am finding, you get better as time goes by. You become more self-aware, more skilled, educated, discerning. Life continues to be an adventure. It's time to switch our anti-ageing to pro-age.'
'There is a new kind of beauty in every age...from your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. Ageing is just another word for living.'
I'm all for pro-age. Aren't you?
And the winner of the copy of Your Hormone Doctor (pulled out of a hat by Mr That's Not My Age) is Val Sparkle. Val, please could you email me your address and I will ask the PR to send it to you. Thanks.
I agree with you and Cindy. However, even a new born is aging!
ReplyDeleteYes! I am all for pro-age...the phrase anti-ageing just shows ignorance because age happens whether we want it to or not. I am all about being your best right now, today and enjoying life to it's fullest one day at a time! I want my appearance to reflect confidence and strength...not youth! I think I would be miserable if I started each morning looking for a younger me in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteI'm ready for a revolt! Any time I read "I hate old people" I think "Would you write "I hate Black people" or "I hate handicapped people"? Haven't been brave enough to say it yet but thank god people like you are starting. You go, girl!
ReplyDeleteEverytime someone says to me: "You would look younger if you cut your hair, dye your hair, or whatever it is "they" think would make me look younger, I say, "it's okay to be sixty. It's okay to look sixty. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT. :-)
ReplyDeleteThere is no anti-aging technology, is there - we go in one direction! Live Cindy's quotes.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you & Cindy. I just happened to publish a post on my blog today about the fabulous Linda Rodin and there a link to that video: Beauty : The New Age.
ReplyDeleteMy post is in French but the video is in English.
http://iambabylonia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/linda-rodin.html
I could never consider myself to be 'pro age" - I spend many days surrounded by 70, 80, 90 year olds and their physical suffering brought on by ageing is agonising to watch at times, they all loathe old age and getting even older, it's a tough time for many but I agree that 'being anti - age" is like trying to put brick into a bottle.
ReplyDeleteI think that the cosmetic industry need to be aware that the term anti - ageing is getting lot of women's goats up on their high haunches.
Just want to make sure you know the blog Time Goes By? Rarely about beauty, but always really intelligent writing from an ex-New York journalist, about aging.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timegoesby.net/
She says much of the same stuff, almost all of which I agree with:).
Thanks Lisa/LPC - I haven't come across the Time Goes By blog but I'm about to check it out.
ReplyDeleteBIG perspective shift needed - aging is the only way to a long life! Everyone and everything is aging, it's the cycle of life. We are aging from the moment of conception, and we have many bodies in our lives - our infant body, child body, teenage body, adult body, elder body. Our bodies are changing all the time, and we accept it until we're fully adult, then we view them as failing us if they change any further!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, maybe instead of fetishizing the whole absolutely inevitable reality of ageing (especially in the context of its stark alternative), we might just get on with living. Sometimes the whole issue just becomes so boring. Although I know your book absolutely will not be -- truly looking forward to that!
ReplyDeleteI agree the whole thing can become boring, and from the minute we are born we are ageing but for women it seems that from 40 onwards is treated life one phase of life (even in very positive blogs) which seems odd. Maybe we need some newly defined phases of life
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I'm so pleased to be the winner of the book - I'm really looking forward to reading it!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with some of the previous comments that the whole discussion can get boring. But I do appreciate seeing older models and role models, and I'm glad our generation is more visible. We can't fight the inevitable march of time - let's just try to be healthy and happy and wise.
I definitely agree with "pro-ageing" instead of "anti-ageing" which actually makes no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteAgeing is just another word for living....is there a t-shirt???
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that the baby-boomers are redefining the process of growing older and having a lot of fun with it. Of course, real old age and decrepitude are indescribably tough and harrowing, but for the present generation of 60 somethings, life has never been so good.
ReplyDeleteI'm just sick of using the words "youth" and "young" or "younger" to mean "good" or "beautiful" or "better"
ReplyDeleteI get disgusted when, say, I try to buy a lip balm or any damned thing at all really, and I'm supposed to be so jazzed because it will make me look "younger" as if I'm trying to buy "young" rather than "good" or "stylish"
Nooo, I don't believe in grooming to look like a super-glorious version of ME...Oh no, I want to look like Selena Gomez! Well, of COURSE I don't but the advertisers constantly tell me that there is NO SUCH THING as a good ME and that if I want to be any good at all I'd darned well better try like hell to fool people into thinking I'm the same age as Selena!
Look younger is NOT the same as look "beautiful" and beauty is what I want...my kind of beauty...on my terms.
Just think of it this way, back in the day the only beautiful hair on a black woman was hair that looked like the hair of another girl from another race...the beautiful skin as that that approximated that of another race, and the most "beautiful" facial features were those that looked like the ones of another race.
It was blatant, and it told you straight out that there was no way in heaven or New York that you---as YOU---could ever be good or admired, or laudable in any way.
Same with this.
Beauty is Beauty and Young is Young and all of us has a place at that table should we care to take it.
Pro-age is definitely the approach to take! I have admired Cindy Joseph for some time now. Great photo and post.
ReplyDelete