It’s a lovely day for a rant… come on in, the water if a little choppy, is fine. This outburst has been simmering since the weekend when for a reason unfathomable to me, commentary around what Andy Rooney thinks about women over 50, hit my social media circle. If you missed it, Google searching “andy rooney women around 50” will get you more hits that you can handle.
Snopes disavows Andy Rooney’s authorship of the piece. Regardless of who penned it, this ‘Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 50 is far sexier than her younger counterpart’ p!ssed me off, oh and that so many Google results I looked at sucked it up.
Any restraint I had vanished this morning when a work colleague handed me the 2012 All Australian Get Reading Guide. As I was flicking through, I stopped at the blurb for My Hundred Lovers by Susan Johnson for which I had read a review previously.
That the ever-so-brief blurb uses the word ‘still‘ TWICE
‘An original imaging of one woman’s waning flesh and the vibrant imprint of a life it still holds’
‘…an impressionist portrait of a woman moving into middle age, but still vibrantly alert to the senses.’
stopped me in my tracks & sent me scurrying first for a notepad on which to rabidly scribble the details of my outrage, then to the keyboard. I’ll tone it down in execution but feel free to assume the word f*ck!ng appears throughout this post.
Anyone who read my post the fountain of youth knows on questionnaires I have to tick the box for the demographically unfashionable age group of 45+. To flog an over used term, I own it.
Last time I looked in the mirror, my body isn’t decomposing. I regularly groom, shower and exercise. There is no reason for any person to approach my body with dread, nor make allowances for any aspect of it.
None of my senses are impaired, other than short sightedness which has necessitated me wearing glasses since I was the vibrant unwrinkled age of 15.
I am a human being, not an object to be assessed. I certainly don’t need my age, whatever it be, condescended to.
So, stop talking about me like that. I’m not dead yet.
daleleelife101.blog 
I hear you , you go girl, I love what you are saying.
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Thank goodness for that. The amount of gratefeulness-oh-finally-thank-you-for-saying-this-is-so-me I saw in response to the ‘Andy Rooney piece’ made me want to bang my head on the table!
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I know that feeling.
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🙂
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You tell em sister!
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I will 🙂 Just when I thought it was safe to assume I’d left the commodified, targeted demographic… off they go hoping us still vibrant wrinklies will be grateful for the attention…. and dammit some were…
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I’m sorry the Rooney comment pissed you off. If only he’d left out the first half of the sentence. 🙂
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Haha, that too… 🙂
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Well stated! Love this post 🙂
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Thank you. I normally don’t get up in arms about such things but the number of “oh this is so good” responses via the social media commentary was beyond belief 🙂
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Yeah, and Andy Rooney was a handsome man, once you got passed an eyebrow or two.
Rant on, Sister. I’ve got your back! 😉
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Thank you. You made me laugh, and I’m grateful for the offer of tangible support… at my age, my back’s not too good 😉
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Well said. I am so sick of woman only being valued for how they look and being derided for aging. A woman is vital at 12 and at 70. Maybe even more so for the knowledge and experiences she has accumulated. Does anyone talk about looking past Bill Clinton’s wrinkles?
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Thank you for the great comment, so much more succinct than my rant! I don’t even want to think about Bill… eeewhhh 🙂
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It is as if we go from beautiful woman to withered crone as soon as the first wrinkle appears! I always feel the same, when I am an old, old woman my insides are still going to be feeling the same as they did when I was 20, or 30.
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Good point. I’m working on crone! When I was much younger I was desperate to be older with all the conferred privileges but I never dream of being younger, and like you I feel much the same but without the insecurities of my teens & twenties 🙂
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Is this the same 92-year-old who died last year? ya know the racist one as well as being sexist – or are there are more arsey andy rooneys around?
Nothing to me. I tick the 50+ box and in my exceedingly arrogant opinion look far better than a lot of men and women half my age. so I don’t brush my hair every day. I go for the hedge backwards look. I lack grey hairs and wrinkles, the jowls have dropped a bit sadly. My weight hasn’t changed, although the distribution of body wrinkles has, ironically giving me a fuller figure than I have ever had in my life. Gotta be thankful for those wrinkles.
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Yes, same Andy Rooney but to be fair he may not be the author, although it’s been attributed to him. His eyebrows appear to be as infamous as his opinions. I was never familiar with him or his work, and I’m not sure why the story is doing the social media rounds now… Funnily enough on the weekend I was rummaging for something else and came across a photo from about 8 years ago when I was very thin, and even though I was all glammd up for an event, I looked awful, drawn and miserable… Viva the good life and evidence of it via a few kilos and/or wrinkles…
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Banging head. Normally I just don’t listen to that nonsense ( being much older and having even older relatives.) But it concerns me so many younger women do hear it and feel it is valid – and then worry and fret. The guy’s was an idiot and what he said was from a oxygen deprived brain ( I used to plead: someone trim those eyebrows, please….you could weave a shawl from all those fibers)
Solidly done post
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Thank you – it was a couldn’t get it out quick enough ranty post – my favourite kind. I love having a medium via which I can vent…
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