Tuesday, August 28, 2012

A bit of a rant, really


I have been in a bit of a posting slump, I know. Part of this is because I am busy! Living life*! But another part is because I’m a bit lazy! And then also I have been all reflective because I am just about to turn thirty-five and that is the age that places me in my mid-mid-thirties (and that’s the age that I used to think meant I was middle aged and that I would then be “on the way out**”). 

I never thought to re-evaluate this idea because I secretly never believed I would be thirty-five. And yet, unless I get hit by a bus or abducted by time-stopping aliens before Sunday, that’s where I’m headed. A thing that I have been thinking about since recently reading Caitlin Moran’s How to be a Woman is that as she says, the beauty and fashion industries are working so hard to make me feel old and decrepit so that I will buy more things and products and worry more lines onto my face so that I need even more products. It’s sick and wrong. There is NOTHING wrong with me AS I AM RIGHT NOW (physically, I mean – mentally there is probably some debate). So I should just decide not to buy into it. I should ignore these assertions that people are expecting my old face to drop off of my head and disintegrate on the floor. 
People are not expecting that. Also, people are probably more worried about their own faces. 

I keep hearing that 40 is the new 30 or 30 is the new 20, but businesses want us to think that 20 is the new 40 and that’s just super unreasonable. Just as I am getting really confident about who I actually am, they are trying harder than ever to tear me down and make me believe that I will NEVER be good enough as I am. No thanks.

See you in hell, make-up and fashion. (In thirty-five years, I guess.)


* I have been having fun going out to dinners and IKEA with people and having wine and sushi with other people and snuggling with still other people***

**One of my favorite jokes when I was a little kid was this:
How far can you walk into the woods?
    Half way, after that, you’re walking out of the woods.

***The people in that last category include: the Man

3 comments:

The Perfect Space said...

Thirty-THRIVE. You've so got this one.

Sarah Berry said...

I just learned about that book after hearing an amazing interview with the author. Tell me more - how was it?!

Also, I'm feeling super duper icky about 35. Ugh.

The Perfect Space said...

Stop feeling icky about 35! It's awesome! <3