Monday, November 21, 2011

Wrinkles Are Things To Be Ashamed Of

By Linda Spector

What I am going to tell you is a family secret. In my family nobody knows how old my mother is. I am not exactly sure, but for the past five or six years my mother has told everybody that she is 49 years old. My mother is terrified of aging, so she decided to freeze her age. Many women in our society are frightened of getting older because the media and society have decided that women are less attractive and less productive as they get older.

Today we can see in the media how women are discriminated against as they get older. We see older actresses and models that look exactly the same as when they were twenty years old. My mother thinks that if she reveals her real age she is going to be discriminated against, and people are going to see that she has lost her youth. Many women today get surgeries and take rejuvenation pill to stop the aging process; my mother stopped celebrating her birthday. For many years I thought that my mother was acting irrational, but today I understand her fear.

Our society has decided to devalue women as they get older, and the media and advertisement companies have taken advantage of this fear to enrich their pockets. Society also is destroying elderly women’s self-esteem, because gray hair, sagging tummies and wrinkles are things to be ashamed of.    

2 comments:

  1. It's a shame how women feel pressured to stay young. In my family and religion, we are taught to value the elderly. They have so much knowledge and can teach us so many things. I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of. However, our society doesn't think that way and it's a shame because it is the older people that have so much to offer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aleshia SatterthwaiteNovember 28, 2011 at 11:30 AM

    The media and Hollywood have made women feel ashamed of aging. In my famiy we embrace every wrinkle has a story and ever gray hair is a sign of wisdom. Woman should embrace their age and share their stories with the younger generation. There is lots of inner beauty in a woman of wisdom.

    ReplyDelete