The belief that older women have less to offer and should ideally not be seen at all remains widespread across genders and age groups.
www.telegraph.co.uk
The cliché of middle-aged womanhood is that we ‘become invisible’. Alas, superpower fans, this does not happen. We are still here, same as always; it’s just that we’re being ignored. Other people are actively choosing not to acknowledge or value us. Meaningful, positive attention is not on the cards for us; the implication is that any irritation we might now feel amounts to a hypocritical resentment at no longer being treated as sex objects.
But being ignored is not the same as the end of objectification. You’re still an object; you’ve just changed in status from painting or sculpture to, say, a hat stand.
The belief that older women have less to offer, deserve fewer rewards, and should ideally not be seen at all remains widespread.
This is frustrating not just because the problem itself – being ignored – defies attempts to draw attention to it, but also because there are reasons why women my age might feel we have more to contribute than ever. As writer Rachel Shabi puts it, ‘women reach 40 and hit their stride... only to be cruelly shoved aside’.
Women should be (young, beautiful, feminine, fertile, f---able) to be recast as progressive.
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Thoughts?
Midlife women are being told to sit down and shut up – and not just by men
The belief that older women have less to offer and should ideally not be seen at all remains widespread across genders and age groups
The cliché of middle-aged womanhood is that we ‘become invisible’. Alas, superpower fans, this does not happen. We are still here, same as always; it’s just that we’re being ignored. Other people are actively choosing not to acknowledge or value us. Meaningful, positive attention is not on the cards for us; the implication is that any irritation we might now feel amounts to a hypocritical resentment at no longer being treated as sex objects.
But being ignored is not the same as the end of objectification. You’re still an object; you’ve just changed in status from painting or sculpture to, say, a hat stand.
The belief that older women have less to offer, deserve fewer rewards, and should ideally not be seen at all remains widespread.
This is frustrating not just because the problem itself – being ignored – defies attempts to draw attention to it, but also because there are reasons why women my age might feel we have more to contribute than ever. As writer Rachel Shabi puts it, ‘women reach 40 and hit their stride... only to be cruelly shoved aside’.
Women should be (young, beautiful, feminine, fertile, f---able) to be recast as progressive.
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Thoughts?
