"The A (Age) Word" BoomerYearbook.com
By Dr. Karen of BoomerYearbook.com
Mature women, even those who enjoyed spectacular good looks in their youth and continue to be attractive and interesting in maturity, tend to lose something when they get past the 50 year barrier. Their flirting is taken literally, seen as ridiculous and even slightly abhorrent by men who only a few short years before would have begged for their phone number, or even worse, men who are downright ancient and unattractive in the extreme seem to think they are now ‘in with a chance!’ As women age, no matter how gracefully they manage to age, they are seen as less intelligent than younger women with better looks! Why is that? Is it in fact simply ‘in their minds’ – this rejection? Or are they genuinely being side-lined by the incoming generation? Or is the problem part of the natural process of the old stepping aside to make way for the young? Obscurity, for a woman who is accustomed to being the center of attention whenever she feels like it, can be unbearable. And how does a woman like that compensate for her loss of status as young, sexy and intelligent? Is she expected to sit back and pretend she is happy to slow down, whether she is or not?
When does the A word (AGE) start to matter? Is it when we begin to feel we are being humored by the local bank manager? (Now, don’t you worry about a thing, my dear, we’ll just leave this until your husband has time to deal with it….) Is it when our daughters begin to rearrange our kitchen cabinets and advise us on the importance of food hygiene when they find we have stored our eggs in the wrong part of the refrigerator? Is it when we start gazing longingly at garments that feature elasticized waistbands or comfortable shoes? Is it when we walk into a crowded restaurant to find no heads turn to look, or pass a silent building site where we once would have raised a chorus of appreciative whistles? Being invisible can be hauntingly consuming for someone who has been confidently accustomed to making a difference to any project she touched…
Dr Karen Turner is a clinical psychologist with an interest in the baby boomer generation as the most successful and resourceful of all generations. BoomerYearbook.com focuses on connecting the baby boomer generation and providing interaction for boomers everywhere. If you are a baby boomer with an interest in the mysteries of the human brain, Boomeryearbook.com is the social network for you.
Tags: baby boomer, Elderly Problems, Psychological Articles, types of discrimination