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:
Thirty-THRIVE. You've so got this one.
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.
Stop feeling icky about 35! It's awesome! <3
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