I am a MA’d (M
iddle-Aged) woman. I have just finished taking a shower and I realized one thing as I looked in the mirror: I have never been happy with the way I look. This thought crept into my head as I wrapped a towel around my wet head and looked at myself in the mirror. It makes me sad to think that I never enjoyed or appreciated my beauty. I was too busy trying to be “better”. I wondered: How many more women have felt this way all their lives? How many women my age have wasted their lives trying so hard to look like someone else; to be thinner than they were (even though they were already thin enough); or have spent thousands of dollars trying to be younger? I picture the Neandertal woman at middle age (which was probably 18) staring at herself in the nearest pond/puddle and wishing she could look better. But, for what? Possibly the ugliest man on the planet?
We talk about how people and society evolve, and you would think that somewhere during the evovlement of women we would finally accept our appearance as it is and move on. I could have sworn we were headed that way with Women’s Lib, but I believe women are heading backwards instead of forward with regard to appreciating who we are. I am no history major, but women have always been judged on their youth and beauty. The Victorian woman who practically suffocated herself in a tightly cinched corset to have that ever-popular miniscule waistline; the major beehive do’s that women of the 1960′s created by teasing their hair (basically they tangled their hair into knots) in order to be attractive; or the girls who had naturally curly hair and ironed it so it would be straight and the girls that had naturally straight hair that fried their hair with perms all wanted to be someone other than who they were.
I know that none of this is earth-shattering, ground-breaking thought, but if I could tell all young women everywhere one thing it would be: LIKE WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE. In fact, enjoy your appearance. Enjoy the youthfulness of your skin, the limber in your limbs and don’t compare yourself to anyone.
What we need to do as MA’d women is set THE example. We were teenagers in the late sixties and early seventies. We saw firsthand bra burnings and women’s rights come into the forefront, but have we had so many Botox injections that we can’t remember what that was all about? Be proud of your age. Don’t hide it or mask it or surgically remove it. Just enjoy! Younger women are watching us. Let’s evolve.
I think Nora Ephron had the same realization. She wrote a book called ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck.’ I read it and, as a mid-twenties woman, I was so sad to realize that as I aged, I would probably hate my appearance even more. But it also inspired me to appreciate my youth and beauty while I have it and not be quite so obsessed with improving myself. And, because it’s Nora Ephron, it made me laugh!