Which Age is Good?

What if all women were required to wear size 10 clothing?  Some would be lost in folds of cloth.  Some would look like poorly stuffed sausages.  Some would have to tie the clothes together like bandanas wound around them in tiers to be decent.  Only a few would look appropriate.  Silly, right?

What would you say is the ideal age for a woman? 21?  25?  30?  Let’s guess 25, for sake of discussion.  Have you noticed that society—including other women and the women themselves—want EVERY female to look like an attractive 25?  Seriously.

Have you looked at the clothing lines offered for adolescent and even little girls? Necklines that plunge where there isn’t even a bountiful bosom yet, jeans that hug shapeless hips, tops that advertise a midriff that hasn’t aged enough to be sexy, pants so tight they may force a young body to eventually develop a hiatal hernia.  Female children appear in advertisements that show them as a cross between gangsta and street walker.  Gone is the celebration of innocence, of pure beauty, of sweet smiles.  Little girls want to look 25.  Adolescents want to be sexy and they may be able to pull off the appearance.  Some moms and dads think it’s cute to have a child who’s a comic version of an adult, although they complain that children grow up too fast.

Okay, let’s consider the other end of the scale.  Suppose the female in the spotlight isn’t a little girl, but she isn’t 25, either.  She saw 25 long ago.  She looks in the mirror and hates what she sees.  She spends billions of dollars on cosmetics, spandex, regenerating creams, hair dyes, supplements, and surgeries.  She gets depressed.  She may abuse food or prescriptions or drugs.  Why?  Because there’s something wrong with a woman who isn’t 25.  A woman isn’t supposed to have wrinkles or age spots or graying hair or a sagging bosom.  Why?  Because women who are 25 don’t have those things.  Designers design for 25-year-olds with model bodies.  Men are indoctrinated with propaganda that trains them to prefer the ideal.

My question is why is there only one age in which women can feel good about themselves? Why can males be boys or mature men and still be attractive, but women have to spend the majority of their lives pinching facial flesh in front of the mirror?

The answer is simple: because we’re willing to accept that belief.  What if we truly did celebrate all the ages and looks of our lives?  We would be in danger of being happy.