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How beauty standards promote the invisibilisation of middle-aged women
Updated On: 02 July, 2023 06:52 AM IST | Mumbai | Mitali Parekh
Who has decided what women should look like at any age? And why are we enforcing it?
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Author Shunali Khullar Shroff points out middle-aged men are fetishized, but there are no flattering terms for physical characteristics of women of same age; Komal Wadhwan, 53, likes taking care of herself physically, mentally and emotionally so that even her three daughters know how to be comfortable in their skin. Pic/Anurag Ahire; Kiran Manral has noticed that middle-aged women—who know what they want and have a disposable income—are often overlooked by sales staff in favour of catering to the youth
"Zeenat Aman had to get on Instgram to be seen,” says author and podcaster Shunali Khullar Shroff, “It means that all those magazines who are celebrating her now had forgotten her or holding on to a nostalgic version of her.” It’s a conversation that stems from the assumed compliment given to a woman, “You don’t look it”; which is also seen as the only response to a woman telling you her age.
Is there a stencil of how a woman is expected to look at each decade? And what does that look like? Who manufactured this and who is giving it currency? A quick ask on social media had everyone in agreement: “You don’t look your age” is one way of saying, “Aunty ne apne aap ko maintain kiya hai” that “You are easy on the eye”; that “You are not repulsive”.
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