I’ve just finished reading an article about society’s extraordinary, generous and open acceptance of Women of a Certain Age. Baby Boomer women. Half-way through the reading, I began to wonder where in the Universe the writer of this piece of rubbish was living … certainly not this one.
It was one of those moments; the reminder of how intolerant, biased and bigoted people are towards those in the wrong age group; for them. As well as those whose age doesn’t fit the perceptions of the writer.
The Generations
Of course, we now have to deal with The Generations, which classify people based on when they were born. Baby Boomers are the classic, and then there is GenX, Gen Y, and GenZ, Millenials (who are GenX) and The Silent Generation, who were born before 1945.
It seems to me that these are used more by the Americans, who like a good pigeon-hole. After all, a one-word or one-letter definition of a group born in a specific time makes it all so much easier.
Women of a Certain Age is more comfortable for me, and certainly softer.
American Women of a Certain Age. Done or not yet started?
Having invented the term Baby Boomer, and every other group name, and bandying it around regularly, it seems that American women, like women everywhere, are considered done once they reach a certain age.
Why?
Men are seemingly exempt from being done.
Why?
Why does our Self-perception Change?
What happens to us to change our own perceptions of what we can and can’t do? Why do we allow younger-than-us others, usually male, to define our abilities by our age group?
Do we really feel the inexorable approach of age that badly?
Do we feel as though we’re being sucked out by the tide?
Have we moved onto shifting sand since we turned 50 and beyond?
What about 60 or 70, and the rest?
We’re often largely ignored and become invisible because we allow it to happen. We sit back and accept it instead of speaking up and standing out.
Did you know there are more women over 50 than ever before? In many, many countries Women of a Certain Age are revered because of their maturity and experience. There is certainly no feeling of irrelevance and they don’t feel invisible.
Isn’t it time we commanded respect and demanded our just dues? Isn’t it time we rid society of the belittling and disrespectful language used to define us?
I think it is!
If you doubt me. and I know you don’t, an excellent read is Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray (A NYT best selling author), who has written a delightful novel about feeling invisible … in the book, she really is!
