Skip to main content

You Look Good...For Your Age

When did that start? I remember the times someone would say, Hey, you look good. Maybe at a wedding, after a long time no see, whatever. Whether you were once a beauty or not, you've all heard it. You look good. So when did the tag-on...for your age...begin? Forties? Fifties? Sixties? And beyond? And why is it on the one hand I take it as a compliment when I get the tag-on, and other times it leaves me feeling annoyed? Are we only supposed to look good when we're young and then when we get older we need the tag on because older people aren't supposed to look good anymore?


Men get the tag on, too, but I'm willing to bet not as often as women. I hear women and other men tell my husband, "you look good". It might be because he's lost some weight, is wearing a nice sweater, has a bit of color from the sun, whatever. But I can't tell you how many times I get the "You look good...for your age."  I get it from people my age but I especially get it from younger people. Do they think as you get older you can't just look good? And does it put an added pressure on us older women? I mean, what if we stop hearing we look good for our age? So then what? We look our age? We look lousy for our age?

Is this a no-win situation?

Or should I just take the compliment, however it's handed to me? Should I use this compliment as added impetus to do my best to look good? I don't know. I'm not really sure what looking good for my age actually means.

But I admit I'll probably get depressed when I stop hearing it. Vanity, ah vanity.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 22, 2010 at 1:43 PM

    "You look good...for your age. When did that start?"

    August 27, 2003 at 8:45pm.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who invented thong undies and WHY???

Young women love them. I see so many of them wearing thong underwear. I "literally" see the thongs. Girls, do you know or care that when you're wearing jeans or any kind of low slung pants that when you bend over or even lean forward your thong strap shows? Maybe it's cool. Like having your bra straps show when you wear tank tops. One day a while back I was with my grown daughter (yes, she still wears thongs) and I was trying on a pair of pants. "God, mom, you can't wear those pants with those underpants. There's a line!!!" Now, I find this funny. It's bad to have the bottom lines of your panties show through your pants but it's apparently okay to have the waist band and the top of the thong part show when you lean forward. But, hey, my daughter was not going to give up on my need - yes, my need - for a pair of thongs. So, like all "obedient" mothers desirous of winning their daughter's approval I let her lead me to the underw...
5 comments
Read more

Why are older women "cougars" and older men..."lucky"?

To set my family's minds at ease I'm not a "cougar". But...I just find it damn offensive that older women who are interested or involved with younger men get labeled. And you can argue that a cougar is not a derogatory term but why don't older men who are into younger women (take that as a double entendre if you like) have a label? Why do these guys get winks and slaps on the back from their pals? I think even younger men look up to them. They're probably thinking - hey, look what's out there waiting for me when I get "old".  Too many older women get dumped by their husbands who then take up with a younger model. I know, I know - you can call it a cliche but really it got to be a cliche because it does happen so often. And isn't it downright eerie that so often these older guys literally find a younger woman who looks so like their once young wives?  Is it sex? Do these older guys want hot young babes so they can have hotter sex lives? ...
3 comments
Read more

Peter Pan didn't quite have the right idea...

Peter Pan was into the whole bit of not wanting to ever grow up. I feel the opposite - I want to grow up. There are those who would say I have grown up....a long, long time ago. But really when are we finished growing up? Is there a specific age? I remember desperately wanting to grow up when I was a kid because there were so many things I was told I couldn't do until I grew up! Naming just a few -staying up as late as my big sister, watching certain shows on TV or the movies, going to the store around the corner by myself. Then as a teen there were more stuff I couldn't do until I grew up . First there was dating, then when I was a bit older it became being alone in my parents' home or my boyfriends' home without a parent present (hah, like any of us listened to that!). Then came being old enough to leave home for college, then to marry, to have children. So I guess I was finally grown up when I had my children. But really I didn't feel so grown up. And I didn...
1 comment
Read more