Gen-X Ladies Looking Good
By GlindaAccording to this article in the LA Times. Gen-X ladies are working it.
As a proud Gen-X’er, this makes me happy.
I think I can honestly say that I don’t look 40. I don’t know exactly how old I look, but it isn’t 40.
I agree with the article in that I think we look younger at 40 than our moms and grandmothers did.
It also says that we hit the anti-aging stuff pretty hard as well, word.
What do you think? Are Gen-X’ers looking quite sprightly for their age or are we just deluding ourselves?
October 4th, 2011 at 9:07 am
Not to bring you down or anything (really!!), but your comment about not looking 40 reminded me of Gloria Steinem’s off the cuff reply to a reporter who told her at her 49th birthday party that she didn’t look 40. She said “This is what 40 looks like.”
So, what you like like is what 40 looks like today, at least on you. (And for the record, I am older than you are.)
October 4th, 2011 at 9:54 am
I’m inclined to agree with Sasha: this is what women our age look like. I just did some volunteer work last week with a woman who told me she was 86–she looked remarkable, she had lots of energy, a quick and sharp mind, the whole package. I thought she looked fabulous for her age, but really, that’s what 82 looks like! My mom at 40 looked like a woman in her mid to late 20’s–but then, so did I. I’ve no photos of my grandmother at that age, but chances are good she looked as young as we do now.
We’ve not had much to refer to in the media about “what 40 looks like, what 30 looks like, what 20 looks like”. Most of the fashion models we see on the runways are under 16 (even Diane von Furstenburg was recently shocked to discover she’d featured a 14 year old in her line up, so she announces that everyone is at least 16 in her shows now); most of the “teen” show stars are in their mid-20’s; most of the “women” we see as stars are in their mid to late 20’s (and then the scripts, all written about women who are ingenues, conspire to keep them out of public view until they’re old enough to play grandmothers). Tilda Swinton is in her early 50’s: how “old” does she look to you?
October 4th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I get what Glinda is saying, and I agree. I will be 50 next week, and get mistaken for at least 10 years younger. By doctors, by people in their 20s, by people who should “know” what 50 looks like. I attribute it to things I did in my 20s and 30s: sunscreen, retinol, no smoking. My diet is completely different from my mothers.