Tale as Old as Time: The Mercilessness of Time and the Tragedy of Ageing

Have you ever wondered why there are such high rates of elder abuse at rest homes, but the rates of child abuse at the same rest homes are much lower? Or do you wonder why the enchanted mirror said Snow White was the fairest of them all even though Charlize Theron is a perfect 10? I'm sad to report that we,, as a society,, live in a society.

A society that  h a t e s  old people.

And I'm not just talking about people over the age of 100 here. Society's ageism applies to anyone who no longer fits into the youthful ideals of physical beauty. But ageism doesn't stop there. This situation is more similar to the Two-Pronged Attack Yu-Gi-Oh card than it is to literally anything else. Ageism is far more apparent for women than it is for men, which creates something of an ageism-sexism axis. 'Sexageism', or 'agesexism': two terms that I just now made up, pretty much describe the unfortunate fate of any woman who;

a) dares to be born, and:

b) has the n e r v e to grow older than age 35

I feel like I am exactly the perfect person to write about this. As a woman, I know what it is like to be a woman. And as a 24 year old, I know basically everything else. 

Studies show* that the older a person becomes, the less beautiful they are perceived by people in all age brackets. This is pretty aptly demonstrated in James Cameron's famous mockumentary, Titanic, where Rose, a beautiful young fire-starter, tragically ages 84 years, while in typical patriarchal form, the male character of the movie never ages, and stays young and beautiful (albeit dead) forever. In the distressing conclusion of the movie it is revealed that we, the viewers, were the old lady from Titanic all along. 

When I turned 24 I had the peculiar feeling that I was slightly older than I was when I was 23.  I got scared. I felt like Benjamin Button in reverse. I knew the end was nigh for me so I went straight to the Countdown skincare section and bought one of everything. I was determined to stay young. I wanted to be the real life Peter Pan. I refused to give the haters what I knew they wanted most of all: The opportunity to target me with their sexist, ageist ideologies, and cast me to the fringes of society, where I would live out the rest of my days knitting scarves to cover my hideous, ageing face. 

But in my quest to be forever young I had a realisation. In my efforts to evade the pressures of society, I had unwittingly done the very thing that society had been pressuring me to do. Somehow, by attempting to defy societal expectations, I had fully conformed to those expectations. I had been buying into --literally 'buying': skincare ain't cheap :''''( --  the idea that there is something wrong with the natural process of getting older. Is it possible that to truly disregard society, and oppose the ageism, I should instead embrace my ageing? Nobody knows!!!. But it takes an empowered woman to throw caution into the river, and age gracefully. And at the young and impressionable age I am at currently, I am just not ready to brave the callous world without multi-active anti-ageing facial serum. So for the next 10 years you can find me in the Countdown skincare section, crying into a face mask  :''''''''(

*probably