Letters to the Editor
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You've got to be kidding.
I'm so sick of publishers forcing this "how to look young" crap down our forty-something throats. I'm even more disappointed that we're buying it!
At every soccer game, school play and piano recital that I schlep my children to (when I'm not administering a surgical anesthetic at my "day job") I can pick out two or three women who subscribe to this ridiculous standard. They're the ones with the teenage hair extensions, the low-cut jeans (sans muffin top, damn them), and the cosmetic filler placed strategically above each cheekbone. It takes a lot of work to look this ordinary.
Don't reward this ageist mentality by purchasing a book which will only serve to reinforce some ridiculous societal prejudice.
And in response to a previous online comment regarding hair length: short hair does not make a woman look old - it makes her look bold!
Ann
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44
I'm finding that there's an advantage, as one approaches middle age, to never having been stylish or conventionally attractive: it makes aging a lot easier.
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Thadeus Crumb
Thank You.
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Revisiting Eileen Fisher
So I had to look at their website apropos of this article, and found this: minimalist, elegant, slightly arty components in drapey, flowing, quality fabrics that combine and layer and show off skin or don't. The models are mostly typical modelly 20-somethings, and one woman with lush, long, enviable white hair who is probably younger than the hair color would lead one to believe, but definitely someone I wouldn't mind looking like. They all look like they just came from a dance studio, a yoga class, a gallery.
American Apparel, it's not. It looks suitable for any woman with a certain kind of taste who is any age from late-20s to however high the charts go, and a full range of body types. Maybe I appreciate the look because I'm over forty, and my 20-year-old self would shudder at the stodginess of it all and think it's for rich arty crones, who knows? They certainly know their target customer, and not many companies are designing for that woman. They really don't deserve the snark.
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Great
The Gary Gygax tribute (http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/03/04/gary_gygax/index.html?source=search&aim=/tech/htww) go bumped of the front page for this hypocritical pile of self involved tripe?
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To Whom Are You Trying to Appeal?
When I was 21 any woman who'd had a child was sort of tough to find attractive. Now married with four kids with the same woman, young childless woman make me feel almost like a pedophile.
Sure, gravity does its thing, but it shows some experience. Some of those battle scars were the result of children and the like. A few lines here, a few burbles there. What's the big deal?
My wife was prematurely gray and gave up dying it years ago. It's long, which affords different hair style options as opposed to the low maintenance bob. Pony tail, pig tail, french braid, clipped, or just mussily flowing. It's a variation and an asset.
The right jeans, stark red lipstick contrasted with the hair, a good top accentuating the positives or just plain buck naked, it doesn't matter. Attractiveness is a state of mind more than anything else, and my wife still takes my breath away.
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How to look younger?
Exercise.
You'll also feel younger, or at least more energized. Not to mention the pecuniary benefits.
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Should have stuck with that initial "appalled" reaction.
I second Blackpaw's emotion concerning the travesty of bumping the Gygax tribute from the front page for this beyond-drivel drivel, and I've never even played a videogame in my life. I had read about Gygax in the Chicago Tribune, which painted a picture of a 69-year-old man who still loved hearing from his Dungeons and Dragons fans, warmly welcomed travelers, and continued to host game parties at his home even while ailing. That is how you go gently into getting older, Mary Elizabeth.
I just can't understand why Salon tosses additional debris into the landfill that is the hysteria over having a 40th birthday. It makes Salon look as truly stupid as everything else out there. Come on, you can do better.
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Looking Old
There is nothing wrong, and much to be admired, about embracing the individuality gained through wisdom and--yes--years and dressing and presenting ourselves in a comparably individualistic way. Long skirts may be called "frumpy" now but the cynicism inherent in the business of fashion is more apparent as we get older and can recall when, not so many years ago, the same long skirts were sold to us as "balletic," "European," or "elegant." Being healthy and being ourselves are ageless goals.
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Keith Richards
This news just in...
Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones can now be seen in a Louis Vuitton ad.
I kid you not. The man is talented, yes - and 64 years old with a face that could break a mirror.
Louis Vuitton has previously used Cathrine Deneuve but wearing too much make up and from a "flattering" distance, sitting on a trunk in a train station.
Now, does anyone believe that Vuitton would have used Deneuve if she had skin like Richard?
Does Richards care about looking like something out of Tales from the Crypt? No. Will Deneuve use make up and dye her hair until she drops? Yep.
Thus Williams's article is not as fluffy as some here have stated.
The Baby Boomers and younger are for the most part unable to deal with aging and death. Men are becoming more and more vain although many still could care less about having a big gut and and grey hair. Older male movie stars still get paired with actresses young enough to be their daughter and homely to downright scary looking rock stars still score the supermodels.
Women can still score dates when we're in our 40s, but past 50 and we're in big trouble. There's a great scene that I recall from Sex and the City: Candice Bergen's fifty soemthing Vogue editor resenting Carrie for dating a man of 50 (Barysnikov's character) and asking "Why are you swimming in my (tiny) pool?"
Look at online dating sites: utterly ordinary and not very attractive men in their 40 and 50s wanting to date women in their 20s. (but rare to see an ad from a woman looking for a man younger than herself.)
Yes, these books are terrible, but the publishers and authors know their market. Women may be in their 30s, 40s and 50s, talented, accomplished, but they are still running out and buying these types of books, reading beauty and fashion magazines, resenting their younger-looking female friends. It's high school all over again.