Good God, just when I thought it was safe to surf through the Internet as a woman of certain age, I read a story based on how researchers at the Japanese skincare brand SK-II have conducted a study with Fukui University that has pin pointed the exact age that women lose their looks --- 35.09.
I have no idea where the .09 comes from, but I'm guessing that it's to compensate for the fact that you still have a few days after the magic number before the ugliness takes hold. Of course, they want you to know you can save yourself from this fate by buying their products.
Now, I'm not going to jump all over these MEN for playing on our mirror mirror complex, our need to be the prettiest one of them all. We're the ones who leave ourselves wide open to this. There is only one thing worse then being THIRTY --- being THIRTY-FIVE and it doesn't take much to freak most of us out as we begin our slide to FORTY.
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| Fig. 3 Carrie Mae Weems, ‘Mirror/Mirror’ |
I have no idea where the .09 comes from, but I'm guessing that it's to compensate for the fact that you still have a few days after the magic number before the ugliness takes hold. Of course, they want you to know you can save yourself from this fate by buying their products.
Now, I'm not going to jump all over these MEN for playing on our mirror mirror complex, our need to be the prettiest one of them all. We're the ones who leave ourselves wide open to this. There is only one thing worse then being THIRTY --- being THIRTY-FIVE and it doesn't take much to freak most of us out as we begin our slide to FORTY.
Product shilling aside, we can't ignore the lengths that women go through to hold on to their youth and beauty. My favorite example of this is Snow White and her Stepmother.
Everyone knows the story of the sweet beautiful ingenue who is forced to flee her kingdom when her aging stepmother can’t accept the fact that she is now old news and Snow White is now the fresh, young thing in the kingdom.
What’s funny about this is that the Queen is still beautiful, not to mention powerful, but she cannot stand being reminded that her youth is fading.
Many people see Snow White as a tale about the importance of inner beauty, but it’s all about what happens when you lose your looks.
Snow White’s face wins her the day. Her fresh beauty raises her stepmother’s ire, endears her to the dwarfs and wins her Prince Charming. Would he have married a perfect stranger if he wasn’t so blinded by her beauty? Throw in the fact that Stepmother Dearest needed a mirror, and a male mirror at that, to affirm her self-worth and that in order to kill her young threat she had to accept her role as an old crone and you have the worst example of aging gracefully EVER.
I often wondered how Snow White dealt with losing her looks when the time came and if she ever grew to appreciate her step mother’s dilemma? Sure, she was a bit touched in the head, but are we so hard on Snow White’s stepmother because we fear we will become her?
Mirror, Mirror in the wall am I still a pretty girl after all?
No matter what we say, we want to be pretty. It gives us power as a woman and we like having that power. Feeling insecure about myself is nothing new to me. I’ve always struggled with weight and never feeling pretty. I was smart and witty; two things I honed to ensure that I was never invisible to the people who I wanted to see me. As I’ve gotten older I realize that my outer self isn’t that bad to look at, in fact I’m pretty fine, but sometimes I question if I’ll never stop being that little girl who never feels as if she is pretty enough, tall enough, skinny enough. I mean I’m thirty-four years old, am I ever going to get to that point when I look at myself in the mirror and am really, truly okay with what is staring back at me?
I suppose that some things will always be a work in progress. But I do know that there are no hags here and I think we all know what SK-II and Fukui University can do with their charming study.
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