If for no other reason than to support Stephanie Dolgoff for writing a book that stirred up this kind of energy and lead ignoramuses like BB (comments on Steph’s blog here) to show himself for what a despicably insecure idiot he can be, I will be buying a copy of her book My Formerly Hot Life.
At the age of 35 (and looking good for my 35 years, I might add), according to BB, I am now on the slippery downhill slope to zero value. Huh!
Wow. Aside from the “power” I supposedly experienced as a younger self who was hot and well – young, I can think of far greater value that women like myself have experienced that are certainly worth celebrating, and offer a little reason for grieving the formerly hot life in a way… Being of the prime age for reproduction, as a for instance, is a responsibility that once was considered by other ignorant individuals of society to be the only real value of a young woman. And however much we lament the suggestion today that young women have no other value than their looks and their abilities to procreate with greater biological odds, women – the life givers, the carriers of the next generation DO become far more powerful as they age, just as do some men.
Ask any child what sort of value their mother has, and they can put into the simplest of words and expressions the most complex concept: that their 35plus-year-old-mother rocks this world! And for those women who have not yet had children by the time they reach that magical number of 35, whether by choice or otherwise, women (like the ever powerful man) become more powerful in their financial assets and ability to provide for their families, selves and society as they age. Yep, you heard me right BB, women also earn higher incomes, and accumulate greater knowledge as they age – and will continue to do so.
However, to suggest that women in general EVER had power and privilege surpassing that of men at any stage of their lives is a farce. How many women (young or otherwise) do we see elected to powerful positions? Yet we make up more than half of the overall population. How many women continue to work for less pay than that of their male counterparts in the exact same level of work? I suspect, if we were to look closely at women before the age of 35 in comparison to men of the same, and again at women over 35 compared to men of the same, we will find that the income gap is smaller in the older group than the younger. What power is there in that for young women?
As for the suggestion that young women hold such power that men that will go to war over them/us… is that act of war not in fact more an expression of the man’s power over the woman and desire to possess rather than celebrate her? Speaking from my own experiences, men who behaved in such manner were as far from my younger formerly hot self as I could keep them.
