The Ever Changing Face of Ageism

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Why are we so afraid of aging as a society? On the one hand medical science is doing everything possible to keep us ticking over so that we live longer. On the other, society is becoming agiest and if truth be known the media have some responsibility for that. There seems to be a sense of contempt for the older female Televison presenters, yet we see the males aging before our eyes, (albeit with a regular dab of Grecian 2000) whilst also having a succession of younger female presenters rolling along on a constant treadmill of change beside them. http://www.guardian.co.uk
 

With increasing medical science helping us live longer and stay relatively fitter, one problem is being solved whilst creating another. Perhaps our generation were not consciously health aware, many of us smoked and drank and ate all the wrong things but now we have it rammed down our throats what we should and shouldn’t eat, drink and so on. We are educated every day as to how to keep healthy and live longer so we have the opportunity to grow old gracefully. Well, that’s what they tell us; however sometimes the advice is contradictory, eat eggs then don’t eat eggs. One day there is such a thing as brain food then there isn’t. Do exercise but don’t over do it, taking statins is great but then it isn’t. Have a glass of red wine everyday but take two days off a week. Da!

How am I supposed to feel as I get older? Am I supposed to experience tiredness and fall asleep after dinner?  It seems I did that in my forties so no change there then.  I look in the mirror without my reading glasses I don’t look so bad, with them on I look as old as God! Now I have varifocals, well say no more now I just don't know where to look. Perhaps this is why we get short sighted so that we can view each other as forever young? I hate it when my beloved looks at me with his glasses on because I know he can see the signs of aging etched into my face but of course it works both ways.  

 It is a wonderful thing that each generation will live longer than the last but what is the point if they are cast off and thrown into a wasteland where they are not revered but forgotten and resented.  Of course there are those who are repelled by the onset of their own old age, and we see those in the media struggling against time.  Nowadays we observe celebrities and movie stars having ‘work’ done in trying to stay looking young. Would I do that even if I could afford it? I don’t think so, in reality it doesn’t matter because in the end being old is a state of mind and if you tell yourself you are too old to tackle something new then you will be. What are the media afraid of as they are hidding away the older female presenters?  Maybe they have the misguided view that we, Joe public don't like it. Obviously they have forgotten that we are an aging population, so we do like to see some gorgeous fifty plus woman reading the news. Get older and Be Proud is what I say.

Someone once said when you are in your twenties you don’t care what the world thinks of you, at forty you start to worry about what the world thinks then by sixty plus you realise the world isn’t thinking of you at all.