Let’s Talk About Ageing (Yes, Again)
I was born in 1980. Sometimes I’m categorised as a geriatric millennial, sometimes as tail-end Gen X. The ambivalence suits me. I once saw a tweet that this was the best situation because you could choose your camp depending on which generation was getting the least criticism at that moment.
Maybe being in this generational no man’s land is part of the reason why I don’t often engage in slagging-off a specific generation. Not feeling attached to one, I don’t see the ‘differences’ as divides. I’m like an anthropologist of generations: I observe and (mostly 😅) don’t judge.
Anyway, going back to the fact that I’m 43. A lot of women my age have started to say that they’re old. Hell, I’ve heard 30-year-old women saying they’re old! That’s madness to me. Nowadays, the life expectancy for a woman in the UK is 80 years-old (82 if you live in Canada, which places my own life expectancy at 81 I guess?). This means that for half their life they’ll consider themselves to be old… And what they mostly mean by it is that their physical beauty is dwindling.
I explored this subject before with my illustration of Robin Wright, so I won’t go on about it now. I’ll just add something I’m not sure I mentioned at the time. I had a discussion about anti-ageing creams with a friend, where I told her I didn’t believe in them, and why should wrinkles be bad anyway? It was better to just accept the lines appearing on your face. This made me sound like I’m always 100% happy with how my face and body are changing, but that’s unfortunately not true. I’m also a product of society, so it’s a constant effort to let go of what we’ve been told women should look like. Turns out, coming to terms with one’s ageing face is non-stop, because we’re non-stop ageing.
But knowing you’re ageing is not the same as thinking you’re old. I’m just, like, an adult. My grandmother once said, when she was 78, that she had to stay healthy so she’d make a beautiful elderly person. Which meant that she didn’t think of herself as being ‘old’ yet. I wish that mindset for us all.
Until recently, I was under the impression I mostly thought about ageing when I looked at myself in the mirror. What I didn’t know was that I’m subconsciously thinking about it when I’m out and about. I only realised I was doing so when looking back at my sneaky pictures. The photos are of people—mostly women—of all ethnicities, between the ages of 20 and 45. The diversity tends to disappear in images of women above 55. They’re mostly white, and their personal style is often more ‘classic’, less stand-out than their younger counterparts. I came to understand that I probably notice more those who reflect how I see myself as an older woman. Which is frankly a bit disappointing because I thought I wanted to look cool like Iris Apfel! (RIP)
I don’t project myself in the younger people, so maybe that’s why I can just take pictures of what I find interesting visually. But when it comes to older women, then it appears that the vision of my future self influences my choices. There’s time yet to change my (subconscious) mind about that. Maybe I should make an effort to take pictures of older women with more eccentric styles, to trick my brain into thinking that’s really what I want for myself.
Judith xx
Monthly inspiration
Raise your hand if you often buy the coffee table book from an exhibition, and never look at it again. 🙋♀️
I’m currently going through a backlog of them, as part of my goal of having more art in my life. So, although I saw the exhibition back in 2018, I just finished reading/looking at the book Klimt, Schiele: Drawings.
I’m sure you’re already familiar with Gustav Klimt, if only through his painting The Kiss. Both he and Egon Schiele were pioneering Viennese artists. Klimt, 30 years older than Schiele, was a big influence on the younger artist.
The exhibition centered around the talented draughtsmen’s works on paper. I’d completely forgotten! Good on past Judith for buying the book. I’ll make sure to go back to it for reference.
I did remember being especially struck by Schiele’s drawings, who often added colour with watercolour and gouache. His style is amazing, if unflattering. It feels very contemporary.
Both artists died in 1918. Egon Schiele was only 28-year-old. I would have loved to see how his art would have evolved.
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