40 is the new 30. Really?
You know those people who always surprise you with their age because they look so much younger than they really are? I am not one of those people. I am 38, in a month I will be 39, and so far everyone believes me when I tell them this, and so I have never been tempted to lie about my age. But I am amazed at the vast number of people who do.
Having been raised in India I never thought being old was a bad thing. If you were old everyone listened to you because they had to, and you basically got away with saying any damn thing and doing any damn thing. My dad smoked, drank and swore as much as he pleased because he could – it was a privilege he had earned. From my perspective, being older seemed like a major advantage. But in the west old age is not part of life, it’s an embarrassing disease that no one wants to admit to. It freaks us out. It scares us. And so we all run around spouting idiotic nonsense like ’40 is the new 30’ but secretly we want to be 20 and look 16.
When did we start pandering to this whole ’40 is the new 30’ shit? And do we seriously even believe it? If 40 is the new 30, then I am guessing that 50 is the new 40, and so on, until being dead is actually being alive for 10 more years. None of this makes any sense and it just pisses me off! I am angry because the ONLY reason for the existence of phrases like ’40 is the new 30’ is simply to make people who are aging feel better about themselves, because aging by definition is supposed to be the worst thing that can happen to anyone.
The obsession with youth is an epidemic, it’s not just stupid it’s embarrassing, and with all the plastic that we can now inject and implant it is getting bizarre. The medical community has practically banded together to provide us with a million and one ways to physically cling to an age in our lives that we think looks good. If you have some money and no fear of needles or blood you can fool yourself into believing anything.
Being older doesn’t bother me. I mean sure, I wish I had used more sun-block, I wish I hadn’t smoked a single cigarette, and I wish I had listened when someone once casually mentioned that if I didn’t watch it my c*&t would sag, but that’s just me whinging over spilt milk. Overall it’s not so bad, for one thing I am still around – isn’t that nice to think about sometimes? And, I am now officially old enough to make excuses for myself based on age.
“Look how high his ass is!”
“Oh please he’s 20! Lets see what that ass looks like when he’s MY age.”
“She just ran the Boston marathon, sub 3.”
“Oh please, she’s 12, lets see what happens when she’s MY age.”
Oh yes, I like using my age – it’s mine and I’ll do as I please with it. Which is why I don’t dye my hair. I am too tired to add one more thing to my stress list. People notice my grey hair and some of them cannot believe I would walk around with this much of it and not try to hide it, but if I were a man my hair would be sexy! Salt and pepper! Isn’t that something ladies?!
“Well I suppose we have George Clooney to thank for that” were my friend Vish’s words of wisdom when I brought this to his attention. And indeed he and his ilk do owe handsome George quite a lot. But what about us? Where are those ’40 is the new 30’ women? Where are our role models?
Yesterday on the subway I saw what looked like a 4 year old with her very hip looking mommy. I couldn’t tell how old the mother was but I could tell a few things. Her hair was colored, her lips had been plumped, and there was plenty of evidence that Botox had been used liberally. I imagine that this woman will continue to add to her face as the years go by and that is her business, the way my grey hair is mine, but I wonder if she cares about the message she is sending her daughter. I may be wrong but she struck me as the type of mother who would never be caught dead with a ciggie in front of her kid, but big balloon lips in the name of youth – I guess that is OK.
Amen, Radhika. I turned 40 this year and I happily proclaimed to the world that I did. I say ‘bring it on’. I have never felt better.