A toned and taught Nicole Kidman, 55, on the cover of the luxury fashion magazine Perfect sparked a flurry of opinion pieces on older women this week. One of them, by a respected female writer, was the most disappointing for me, accusing Kidman of ‘age proofing’ her life, of chasing ‘eternal youth’ and also made predictable jabs at designer fashion. It INFURIATED me but what do you think? Is femininity in question here, is it wrong to have abs at 55? Read it and let me know what you think?
Is it not Nicole’s choice and freedom to look how she chooses? Two fingers to the lot of them I’d say. If she put a stone in weight on she’d get the same negative rubbish. Good on her I say 👍
well that's the point isn't it in many ways, what women do is judged more harshly and I fear that headline was written by a male sub-editor having worked in newsrooms all my life and spent hours correcting sexist subs' headlines!
Ugh, why, why, why can’t we accept a woman’s right to a pride in her appearance alongside other qualities? Kidman is articulate, intelligent and strong. So what? Women are multi-faceted and her looking this way doesn’t negate any of that. It angers me we are still having this discussion. I read the article you’ve referred to and I was pretty disappointed...
I’m strident in my opinion on this but will keep it clean! Elba, Craig, Pitt, Clooney, amongst others. Men mooned over, feted, irrespective of age and celebrated at EVERY stage of their lives. If only I had the physical capability and tenacity of Nicole to achieve half of what she has, physically. No debate - she looks incredible, powerful, strong, wonderful. All positive adjectives and long may she represent herself in anyway she sees fit. Dissenters, doubters, dirges ad infinitum can foxtrot Oscar. She’s a tour de force. End of.
I feel sympathy for both sides of the argument and err on the side of Ms Kidman can do Ms Kidman. But if you want to know my first reaction to the image (and not the article) was "I wonder how much of that image is airbrushed/amazing body make up and/or plastic surgery?". I feel she is very divorced from the reality of mid-life and I just don't feel the need to compare myself to her.
I feel a bit conflicted. On one hand everyone should be free to pursue whatever fitness goals suit them. But I had always hoped that growing old meant being able to feel less pressure to look buff, have perfect skin and bodies. Now it feels like you can never stop. That’s why I am a bit confused when you post congratulatory photos of Madonna and Nicole on one hand but on the other hand also talk about how older women are invisible. Maybe older women find it hard to be visible because the ones who are in the limelight are people like Nicole and Madonna who are trying defeat Father Time. I am a huge fan of Postcards from Midlife as it has always embraced the downsides of growing old with good humour. And then I see posts like these and wonder when can I stop pulling my tummy in when I am in front of the mirror?
Interesting points. I think you can do both/be both: but the problem is society's need to tell women how to look and the lack of role models covering all the ways we looks as we age. We should celebrate women who choose this path and those who don't. I like to celebrate women doing it the best way for them, but it feels as if there are fewer role models in the public eye who talk about ageing their way minus the 5x a week work outs. Jamie Lee Curtis has been vocal on this and is great to follow on social media. I guess the point here is why tear other women down for the sake of a Bank Holiday column!
I don’t know whether women like Nicole and Madonna have gone under the knife precisely because society has built this expectation that women can never age or whether they did it to feel better about themselves. By celebrating women who meet this goals that are unattainable for regular women, I feel we have made no progress in the last few decades. Can we have more Emma Thompsons and Nicola Walkers on cover pages celebrating natural ageing? It would make a huge difference to younger women to see that everyone ages and it’s okay to have wrinkles and stretch marks and wing-arms.
She looks amazing. I feel lots of the critism aimed at ‘older’ woman who work hard to look good comes from woman who can’t be bothered to MAKE that effort. That’s ok if you’re happy not to but then don’t pick at the woman who do !
Is it not Nicole’s choice and freedom to look how she chooses? Two fingers to the lot of them I’d say. If she put a stone in weight on she’d get the same negative rubbish. Good on her I say 👍
well that's the point isn't it in many ways, what women do is judged more harshly and I fear that headline was written by a male sub-editor having worked in newsrooms all my life and spent hours correcting sexist subs' headlines!
That’s a true talk dear
Ugh, why, why, why can’t we accept a woman’s right to a pride in her appearance alongside other qualities? Kidman is articulate, intelligent and strong. So what? Women are multi-faceted and her looking this way doesn’t negate any of that. It angers me we are still having this discussion. I read the article you’ve referred to and I was pretty disappointed...
I’m strident in my opinion on this but will keep it clean! Elba, Craig, Pitt, Clooney, amongst others. Men mooned over, feted, irrespective of age and celebrated at EVERY stage of their lives. If only I had the physical capability and tenacity of Nicole to achieve half of what she has, physically. No debate - she looks incredible, powerful, strong, wonderful. All positive adjectives and long may she represent herself in anyway she sees fit. Dissenters, doubters, dirges ad infinitum can foxtrot Oscar. She’s a tour de force. End of.
I feel sympathy for both sides of the argument and err on the side of Ms Kidman can do Ms Kidman. But if you want to know my first reaction to the image (and not the article) was "I wonder how much of that image is airbrushed/amazing body make up and/or plastic surgery?". I feel she is very divorced from the reality of mid-life and I just don't feel the need to compare myself to her.
I feel a bit conflicted. On one hand everyone should be free to pursue whatever fitness goals suit them. But I had always hoped that growing old meant being able to feel less pressure to look buff, have perfect skin and bodies. Now it feels like you can never stop. That’s why I am a bit confused when you post congratulatory photos of Madonna and Nicole on one hand but on the other hand also talk about how older women are invisible. Maybe older women find it hard to be visible because the ones who are in the limelight are people like Nicole and Madonna who are trying defeat Father Time. I am a huge fan of Postcards from Midlife as it has always embraced the downsides of growing old with good humour. And then I see posts like these and wonder when can I stop pulling my tummy in when I am in front of the mirror?
Interesting points. I think you can do both/be both: but the problem is society's need to tell women how to look and the lack of role models covering all the ways we looks as we age. We should celebrate women who choose this path and those who don't. I like to celebrate women doing it the best way for them, but it feels as if there are fewer role models in the public eye who talk about ageing their way minus the 5x a week work outs. Jamie Lee Curtis has been vocal on this and is great to follow on social media. I guess the point here is why tear other women down for the sake of a Bank Holiday column!
I don’t know whether women like Nicole and Madonna have gone under the knife precisely because society has built this expectation that women can never age or whether they did it to feel better about themselves. By celebrating women who meet this goals that are unattainable for regular women, I feel we have made no progress in the last few decades. Can we have more Emma Thompsons and Nicola Walkers on cover pages celebrating natural ageing? It would make a huge difference to younger women to see that everyone ages and it’s okay to have wrinkles and stretch marks and wing-arms.
She looks amazing. I feel lots of the critism aimed at ‘older’ woman who work hard to look good comes from woman who can’t be bothered to MAKE that effort. That’s ok if you’re happy not to but then don’t pick at the woman who do !