Looking Like Your Mother

Plastic Surgeon's Blog

Trying to find a Kate Winslet quote I found this blog. Don't have time to review it now, but it's here for me to get back to.

Oo, Oo, Oo, I know, I know

Shannon from the Pierce Mattie PR firm writes in her piece, "Baby Boomer Beauty - isn't that so last year?":

". . . Dove plans to launch their new line “Pro-Age” in February. They are using the term “Pro-age” to take away the negative connotation that is associated with “Anti.” When most brands consider launching a product line geared towards menopausal women so last year, Dove is moving forward banking on their success of the Campaign for Real Beauty. . . . While in the last year Dove has proven they can be innovative and think outside the box, I have to wonder if that success will continue with Pro-Age. The baby boomer customer has been overstretched, over-pitched and oversold. Even dept. stores are beginning to no longer carry menopausal brands."

Well, the reason is threefold. Firstly, the stuff they sell in $50 to $200 bottles doesn't do what the ads claim, so folks that have the money to spend on jars of  steric acids and empty promises are instead taking their money to doctors. Secondly, as I have asked before, who was sitting around the conference table the day the beauty industry decided that it was a good idea to place the phrase "anti-age" on the surface of a container? My guess is middle-management men and their 28 year old female assistants. ("Pro-Age" doesn't cut it either because the name itself invites one to think of the opposite.) Thirdly, we aren't a single unit. You show me three women and I'll show you three different skin issues. I don't expect my foundation to make me look like I am twelve. I shop for one that matches my skin tone and doesn't make me break out.

No, Shannon. We are not over-sold. It's just that the peri, post, and regular ol' menopausal in our group are a bit tired of being sold to stupidly.

Yeeeesssss!

One of my favorite blogs,  Time Goes By, is a Featured Blog on Typepad. It should be. Her posts have been enlightening.

One of my husband's best friends was up against another male for a job. After chewing on it for three months, the company awarded the other bloke the job.  The conventional opinion was that our friend, who had been working on assignment in Paris and had come home shortly before a job interview related IQ test.  He was distracted and jet-lagged and did not think he performed well on the test. 

I suggested to my husband that the other guy was 10 years his junior, and the company's debate involved whether to go with the older, more experienced guy, or the less experienced one who was a little farther away from retirement, and perceived as more tech savvy and flexible. 

My husband was silenced for a few seconds.  That rarely happens in response to one of my imagination-based scenarios.  "Boy.  I guess I haven't thought of us being there yet, but you may have a point."

"Well, the "yet" gets younger and younger.  Anyway, maybe you can mention that, so he will stop beating himself up over not being better rested for his test."

"I am not sure which would be more depressing," my husband hesitated. "He can always do something about his test-taking condition. There is not much he can do about his age."

Anyway, thanks Ronnie.  Keep shaking us. 

New Siting

Finally.  Got my holiday cards out just in time for New Year's.  If I made my living as a graphic artist, I would starve to death.  Slow, picky and clueless is a bad combination.

Looking Like Your Father just drew Suddenly Senior to my attention.  The piece on the blow-up doll for Christmas alone is worth the visit. 

Fresh Face

Sex in DCity has a fresh look, with great hue gradiation and a link to Looking Like.  As I will be in DC in about six months, I will carefully study her recommendations to see if any of them might also be suitable for people like Carrie's mom.  Or maybe Carrie's older sister.  Or, actually, Samantha.

Her site is not to be confused with sexindc.  I think.

Beauty and Lee Marvin

Dear Whomever Decided There Would Be Only 24 Hours In A Day:

Finding the time to surf has gotten rougher, almost indulgent feeling.  I found Eaton Portal today, in a search of similar sites.  Few listed seemed to be in the right category. I gave up when I got to Sons of Lee Marvin.  I mean, the blogger seems like a cool dude, but . . .

Ahhh, To Be Jung

My least favorite painting has always been Edourd Manet's Luncheon on the Grass. Experts can extoll its "art for art's sake" inspiration and the allure of provocation. I only see traditional gender roles. It's boring and trite and predictable. Actually, it's annoying and trite and predictable. Picasso's version escapes my wrath only by the skin of its teeth, and probably because I find unexpected humor in his later work. What else could explain it. A cubist's pimp is still a pimp; a cubist's business man is still ruler of the commercial world; a cubist's naked chick demurely posed is still only making $.75 on the dollar.

My point? One's position dictates one's perspective.

Put another way, if you have never been a middle-aged female business owner in a competitive market with employees born in the 80's - for crying out loud - and children raging through puberty, don't even think of trying to tell me what is going on in my head.

Ageless Marketer, suggests that excursions into plastic surgery are futile measure to avoid the reality of dying. He's got proof. He recites Carl Jung's Seven Tasks of Dying, where "Facing the Reality of Aging and Dying" is listed first. Been there. At 11, I suffered a melancholy over the fact that all my family members, friends and I would, eventually, die. Worse, no matter how many Sunday School classes I attended and the number of visits from Santa I had received, I also accepted, somewhere in the reluctant recesses of my brain, that when it was over, it was really over. An afterlife never seemed much of a plausible epilogue to biology. And so began a long journey into exploring life for what it had to offer, appreciating each new stage and feeling that along the way I have at least gotten wiser, if not smarter.

Most importantly, the best time of my life has always been the part that I am in at the time I ponder the question. Whenever I consider becoming 70 or 80, I think of my grandparents at that age: lovely and stylish, strict yet compassionate, and full of grace. Growing old would be a reward, and after that, I could finally get my undisturbed nap. Unfortunately, not everybody feels this way. To many, old is unappealing and useless, frail and ineffective, and out of touch with youth; the prospect of growing old is frightening. With so many baby boomers hitting the higher numbers and increasing number of X'ers stepping in to control the policy, practice, and content of our lives, it would be a great and timely service to every generation if we could convince people to stop assuming what 50 or 70 or 90 feels like. This should be familiar territory to at least half of us. Women have been working to challenge misconceptions since Stanton, with every one of us displacing ignorance and confronting the king of the hill in our own private, steadfast ways.

My brand of feminism was quiet and personal. I entered a male dominated field, worked endless hours, and missed my kids, a lot. Many of us did that, and the board room assumption that it was risky to invest in a woman who was going to soon marry, have kids, and disappear, lost some of its steam. I believe that this methodology had more of an impact on my male co-workers and supervisors than if I had brandished a placard out on the street, but my strategy was only one means by which some of us hoped to educate a populace. Others did carry signs, wrote, studied, got elected, or ran their own boardrooms. Maybe our efforts were not so well coordinated, but what we lacked in organization, we made up for in tenacity and numbers. We still do.

Who believes that a successful attack on age discrimination and misperception needs to be any less faceted?

I am not trying to look 25 and cheat death. I want, instead, to get people to think less about the date of birth question and more on the "Experience" portion of life's questionnaire. I believe this battle can be aided by a few warriors who will state their age and give the youngsters a chance to see that maybe the future isn't so haggard and scary afterall.

Jennifer, don't let anyone tell you you are going through a stage. You take the nomenclature front, and remember, no prisoners.

As Time Goes By

At the risk of being taken seriously for just a second, this blog might be my new favorite.

Stop Bending Over

Cerebral Kitchen is worth mentioning if for nothing else, a great blog name. This list, poor guy, is what really earned him space here.