Letters to the Editor
-
You get to watch now.
As eyes turn away from you, you get to watch. Try it. It's marvelous. You'll see so much. You'll learn so much.
-
ugly
Age is the train heading directly at you. In the USA age=ugly. On web sites there are 70 year olds who will reject you based on your age. You are old. Deal.
-
why can't we be honest?
Beauty is power. Women obsess over their looks because beauty provides an access to power. A friend puts it thusly: "The smaller the woman, the bigger the SUV."
"Poor girl wants to marry, rich girl wants to flirt."
---Charlie Daniels
Where wealth can be youth and beauty too. But power is not evil! Some power is necessary for all of us to have any comfort at all.
What 40-something women are upset about, is their loss of "the power of the attractor." The loss of power is usually upsetting for all, but this is a power that most men never have to begin with.
Life is unfair.
-
Sad thing is
older women become reduced to having to engage the world in the way that most men have had to their whole lives, receiving no special perks or treatment by society.
Yet, despite this revelation that older women receive, older women still almost universally NEVER teach their daughters to treat men better as just compensation for the men never having the privileges that beauty naturally brings to women in the first place.
This is a telling example of how life is. When I am on my deathbed, I will truly understand that there NEVER WAS any love on this planet for women to give to men. That women only took.
So where is God in this? Does he really despise us men that much?
-
Brightstar, let it go already!
Power corrupts equally across the sexes. Just like a lot of the men in Mexico City cheat on their women left and right and generally treat women like shit, so too do a lot of women in the US (who have much more power) treat men like shit.
That's just the way it is! Suck it up princess!
-
I understand Mamamela
I am just tearing down the obvious bullshit canard that women are 'fairer' or more decent than men.
Women would never want to be at the level men are. But they still like to rip into us every chance they get.
Again, is there any justice in the world?
IT IS HIGH TIME MEN FIGHT BACK, and TWICE AS HARD for all the crap women have subjected us too these past five decades in the States.
-
"It's unfortunate that any of us have to age" -- WHY?
Wow. I feel so fortunate in comparison to LW, and most of the posters here.
I decided years ago to think with my brain and not other parts of my body. And you know what my brain told me?
1. We're all going to age.
2. We're all going to die.
3. Aging and dying are natural. They are part of who we are.
4. If we didn't age and die, life would be completely without meaning.
5. The odds against any single one of us being born are astronomical. Incalculable. So why get depresssed because this incredible gift doesn't last forever?
That said ... of course we are all conflicted about aging, especially women, because that's what our society and culture drums into us about 1,000,000 times a day. We don't live in vacuums.
But if you look closely at what's happening, your BRAIN will ask the question: CUI BONO? Who's benefiting from making human beings feel crappy because they're following a natural path?
Well, plastic surgeons, fitness club entrepreneurs, cosmetic companies ... you can come up with others, I'm sure.
And no, I'm not saying nobody should ever have plastic surgery or that getting in shape is a terrible idea or that no one should ever wear makeup.
I am saying that if you feel so bad about who you are that you obsess about your face/body/makeup/clothes on a daily basis, you are surrendering to cultural expectations and not listening to YOUR BRAIN.
So start listening.
Once you have let go of these wasteful assumptions about looks and aging, and rediscovered the beauties of life that lie underneath the surface, start spreading the word. Tell the people in your life that you appreciate and love them for qualities that go beyond looks.
And don't listen to the sexist jerks (some of whom regularly post on salon.com, alas) who try to reinforce the nonsense that you have to fight aging because you're a woman. They can't help it, really -- they're trapped just like you are in cultural assumptions. But you can rise above that. Just remember to keep thinking.
Here's a radical thought: YOU DESERVE TO ENJOY EVERY SINGLE PRECIOUS MINUTE OF YOUR LIFE. Why would you want to live any other way?
-
Wow, this really brought out the loonies
And here I am to stir the pot:
I hear a lot of women complaining about men being attracted to hot young women (whether this is part of our evolutionary biology or just our cultural encoding, who knows). However, it should also be noted that women tend to be attracted to wealthy, powerful men. So women are sex objects, and men are success objects. Is one more or less fair than the other?
The upside for men, of course, is that it's possible to get richer (and hence more attractive to the opposite sex) over time. As for women, I guess it's "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may."
Discuss
-
I have no problem
with men being attracted to younger women (to the extent that they would not even associate with women their own age). I would never find that kind of guy interesting or worthwhile anyway. I myself find guys of different ages, including younger, cute, so believe it or not, I have no issue with it.
What is annoying here is the same handful of men braying on about how normal, great, scientifically rational, etc. it is that men lust after younger women. Well, that's great for the guys who actually score, but if you're one of those like Brightstar who consistently voices his entitlement to have a hot woman, yet doesn't ever seem to get one, and furthermore calls all women shallow every chance he gets, well...that's really irritating. I am not interested in your failed biological imperative. You can feel entitled to the hotties all you want, but you're probably overshooting/overreaching/whatever the term was for going way out of your league. Stop whining about how the hot young women won't give you the time of day. They have their own needs, and it's not their fault that this culture gives a lot of status to people's looks--they're just taking natural advantage of it.