Just read about these fabulous women.
Last week, I can’t remember where, I read some biological essentialist claptrap about feisty older women, that it was somehow all to do with less hormonal oestrogen in the post menopausal years.
I can’t help but wonder whether it’s more to do with older women’s accumulation of life experiences, and also that older women have moved beyond the societal dictum that the sexual approval of the opposite sex is all. Political activism that may well benefit one’s progeny is far more important.
P.S. Helen – haven’t forgotten Zoe Balll, how about a guest post?
Categories: culture wars, Politics, social justice, violence
Hoyden About Town 
Will do!
I remember blogging a few years ago about some article in the SMH or other Australian media, which was discussing the mid-life crisis as an exclusively male thing. His argument as I recall was that women have their menopause so they just think about that, and that’s it. Mine was (besides f**k you and the horse you rode in on, matey) was that actually, I believe women undergo an identical process of life-evaluation and sometimes change of direction.
Helen’s last blog post..Friday Dogblogging: Crate
I think women have at least two intervals where life-evaluation kicks in strongly for many women. The first one is when you hit 25, and suddenly realise that most of the blokes who no longer cluster quite so thickly around one as they used to were never really listening to what you were saying anyway. Some women respond with relief at the semi-invisibility, others with distress and hyperattention to grooming and fashion in order to overcome it. Those who find that their response is relief tend to get reflective.
The secondA later interval is when one reaches the age where people finally don’t disapprove of one dressing for comfort. It can finally be “OK” as a woman just to be neat and clean and forget the rest of the high-maintenance grooming rituals! To only wear clothes that suit you instead of being pitied if one is out of fashion! The time saved, and the common sense of sheer relief at the lightening of that burden, lead straight to the path of life-evaluation.I wonder whether the spread is more diffuse than that. My most rapid psycho-political evolution by far took place right through my thirties. So far.
Maybe it can occur at different ages, depending on how much time you have for reflection. I definitely remember the time I realized the difference between being listened to and having someone watch you talk. But it might have taken me a few more years to catch on if a relationship crisis hadn’t rubbed my nose in it!
L, yes, I didn’t mean to imply that there would be no intervals between the two. Have edited to reflect that.
Perfectly phrased, Su. That’s exactly it.
I’m not convinced that invisibility and relevance vis a vis age etc is all that gender specific.
When I look at young women I’m most likely thinking “your kidneys will get cold in that short top” or “how can you totter about on heels that high” – it’s usually interpreted as “jeez another old sexist perv”
And being “interviewed” for a job by a 25 year old himbo/bimbo just promoted from Grand Prix “hospitality host” certainly transcends gender.
Francis Xavier Holden’s last blog post..sound: one hand typing
My observation is that invisibility kicks in at a significantly younger age for women than for men, and also that many men are oblivious regarding the difference between polite attention towards them and sexual attraction towards them when they are talking at women.
Factor in all the various social jostling whereby people watch each other speak only so that they can utter their own priceless pearls of wisdom as soon as the other person pauses to draw breath, and it does all get a bit complicated.