Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 7:16 PM
Sun Nov 8
25 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/01/09
09/01/09
When my friend hit her mid 60s, instead of getting a facelift or becoming invisible, she went back to school to get her Masters degree in gerontology. She spent the last 25 years of her life as a social worker and activist for the rights of elders.
The one theme I saw in most of the clips above, as well as in many of the comments was that people did not want to look old because being old equals being irrelevant.
In honor of my friend, I would like to call ‘bullshit’ on that idea.
Don’t want to become irrelevant as you age? Stop trying to pretend that ageing doesn’t happen…
Maybe if our culture didn’t have such a deep seeded phobia about ageing, we could rationally discuss a health care reform bill that includes a provision that offers senior citizens access to counseling on how to plan for their care as they age without people crawling out of the woodwork saying that Obama wants to euthanize the elderly.
09/01/09
As far as beauty and growing older is concerned, I think Roald Dahl said it best in The Twits:
"the funny thing is that Mrs. Twit wasn’t born ugly. She’d had quite a nice face when she was young. The ugliness had grown upon her year by year as she got older.
Why would that happen? I’ll tell you why.
If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until it gets so ugly you can hardly bear to look at it.
A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."
09/01/09
I know I'm looking forward to getting older and not so scared of the wrinkles...my mom and aunts are proof that melanin is one hell of a preservative. The grey hair? A little bit, but only because it's refusing to in the punk rock temple stripes that my mom's did.
Documentaries like this one fascinate and irritate me. I mean,hasn't anyone noticed that women get more awesome with age? I think the self-confidence that comes with age/experience is worth some saggy tits and stretch marks.
09/01/09
I like maturing and youth was never a good fit for me, personality-wise. It's getting to the point where I don't know if I look cute/funky in my old-ladyish clothes, or like I'm just dressing older than I need to. And what is with what the kids these days are wearing?
09/01/09
09/01/09
Maybe it said that on the show, but I only saw these clips here.
09/02/09
09/01/09
Just because you have no wrinkles doesn't mean you don't look old.
Also, with enough work all these women start to look THE SAME. As if it isn't obvious you have had work done?
I just don't get who they think they are fooling and why?
Everyone can tell the last woman is older as well as the blonde woman towards the end, so what was the purpose of all the work done and money spent? Just to fool HERSELF into thinking she doesn't look her age?
I just don't get it....
09/01/09
also, there's this moment in the film when we're first introduced to Sherry, and she made this "aghast" expression as she was told that the woman who had just left was 46.
I said to myself, "mhmm, that woman did look 46, she did look younger than you, and underneath all your makeup and plastic, Sherry, I can still tell that your mid-50s."
Some of these women aren't fooling anyone - most of the time, you can still tell their age if you look hard enough. Efforts to look younger are sometimes the very thing that reveal your true older age.
09/01/09
I concur that it's a form of self-delusion. Honey, ain't nobody but yourself gonna mistake you for 25.
09/01/09
*evil laughter*
I feel SO vindicated right now. I was bished at in here because I body snarked in the meanest way (my target was either one man or men in general). I maintained that men weren't going to learn the lesson unless we'd bottle feed them a taste of their own stinkin' medicine.
I reserve future rights for body snarking. I do it for the cause of womankind. A noble and worthy cause (plus, my natural bitch personality just lends itself to the cause so effortlessly).
Seriously, though, guys. I have overheard men say ABSOLUTELY NASTY things about women's looks while they themselves looked like Quasimodo on a bell ringing break (no snark, the truth).
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
But really, that's quite an insightful dream, and uplifting. Thanks for sharing.
09/01/09
But what an interesting dream.
09/01/09
*for the record, I am 40 years old and damn happy about it
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
09/01/09
It's why we're obsessed with youth. It's the illusion of immortality.
I don't care if people nip or tuck whatever they want, but I think it's sad that we're spending so much time and mental real estate on hating ourselves enough to cut it with a knife. Sure, it's distracting. But eventually, you're still stuck with yourself. And the reality is, no amount of surgery or creams are going to make you live forever.
09/01/09
In reality, I am heavy, I have acne, I am beginning to sag, my lips are getting thinner by the day, I have cellulite. I have a list a mile long of procedures I want to get.
I teach my students self-love and acceptance, but I am a ridiculous hypocrite. Oh the battles in my head.
09/01/09
09/01/09