Ageism and the Politics of Beauty

Our article, discusses the struggles between age and beauty. Older women perceive aging to be a deficiency and not so pleasant stage of life. The reason they feel this way is  because men "have filled our minds  with an extensive literature and imagery of disgust, which includes a kind of voyeuristic fascination with what they see as the obscurity of female aging. Men's disgust for old women's bodies with its language of content (shriveled, sagging, dragging, wizened, ravaged, liver spots, crows feet, old bag etc) is so familiar to us that it feels like home." Being only human, we read into literature and take it  as it and relate it to the modern life. The fact of the matter is, aging is inevitable and we should not fear discontenting men, but more so, taking care of our bodies. Men are known to go for the "virginal inexperienced" type of gals to please merely their bodies. Old women take this to account that they are not needed nor wanted if they are infertile. 

                                   

The article goes into the argument that the older we get the more useless and irrelevant we are in society. This mindset can take a toll on a aging women's self-esteem and confidence. If one is told that are don't matter because of their age, they take it to account that their voice and their mind is also unimportant. "But most women find that the more our bodies are perceived as old, the more our minds are dismissed as irrelevant. And if we are more than our bodies, we also are our bodies." When we choose to live above the opinions and superficial, shallow people, we are our full selves; our bodies. Our bodies are just a physically portrayal of who we are, but it is our character that defines we are.

In the Fashion world, older women tend to dress unlike their age only because they think that is what is expected and attractive to the male figures. Older women should dress how they want to and what they feel comfortable in. When you try to dress for someone else, you lose yourself and not dressing for yourself. Aging is a natural part of life and should be embraced with open arms.