This is in contrast to women whose main stock in trade is assumed to be their physical appearance, which we’re sold and told should be youthful and appealing to the male gaze.Ī survey that studied 2,000 women revealed that by the time they reach the age of 51, many women believed they had become invisible to men.
#Middle aged woman professional#
At the half century mark, men are typically viewed as being at the zenith of their professional and personal lives, often leading organizations and companies and are viewed as accomplished and experienced. The feeling of not being seen is often acutely felt by middle-age women.
And just like that I was out of my funk.Īging isn’t easy on anyone, but there is a well-known social phenomenon called Invisible Woman Syndrome that can make it particularly hard on women. I decided to stop coloring my gray hairs and aside from the horror of the women at the hair salon, the response that annoyed me the most was “what does your husband think about that?” Say what? I assure you no one has ever asked me what I thought about my husband going bald.
And for a moment that compliment made me feel good about myself again, which then made me mad. A man I had never met told me I was beautiful and congratulated my husband on marrying so well. It felt wrong on so many levels and I couldn’t make sense of it or pull myself out of the funk so I went all in and just wallowed in it. In fact, I was feeling pretty crappy about myself and I went into a funk, big time.įor someone who was raised by an intelligent, strong and empowered woman who treated compliments on her daughter’s physical appearance with disdain and who instilled in me the importance and value of my brainpower, how could I be feeling so bad about something so superficial as my aging visage? Who was this woman and what had she done to the smart, confident daughter my mother raised? And the fact that I consider myself a feminist just added to the insult of my perceived injury. And unlike some of those Instagram #fitfab50 women you see, I was not feeling fit or fabulous. A not so funny thing happened to me this summer.
0 kommentar(er)
