Youth Supremacy – A Hidden Addiction: I'm Proud of My Age

I was in the grand ballroom of a chain hotel, where he was taking a personal development workshop. The leader asked us to talk about our sustainable practices, so I went to the microphone to explain how writing is a professional and spiritual practice.

“Writing is everything to me. This is the art that has sustained me over the years, and being able to post every week makes it even better. In fact, I hear from people for whom I made a difference. The audience applauded.

Later, while I was sipping water during a break, a woman said to me, “I loved what you said.” I am also a writer. Then, out of the blue, she added, “You must have been hot at some point!” Non-sequitur aside, I assumed that the young woman – decades younger than me – took his remark as a compliment, even if it didn’t seem like one.

Rather than taking it personally — propelling my “once hot” little hand into his face — it reminded me that I’ve been thinking about ageism for a long time, since I was 35. Being in the entertainment industry, I knew that was the problem. Many women in front of the camera are considered past their sell-by date. It’s strange and unmistakable and it gets worse as the years go by. Women-identified people have also told me that no industry is immune to ageism. My friends from the world of banking, insurance and pharmacy have experienced this. I wish I had the resources to fund a comprehensive study on how much talent we are wasting by sending talented, vigorous people out to “pasture.”

Listen ! The most effective time to combat ageism is before you are too old to be listened to seriously. Loss of relevance doesn’t happen overnight; it happens subtly. For example, seeing beloved male colleagues who you thought liked you because of your wit diverted their attention to younger women. However, if you confront them, they swear they are not sexist. Additionally, if it is a boardroom with more than one woman – of any age – that is proof that there is no sexist or ageist culture in place, nor isn’t it? Fake.

I am not the first and I will not be the last to denounce ageism as a virulent form of sexism. And maybe it’s bigger than that. Older men also see their status decline as they age; Generally speaking, their shelf life is longer, but ageism also diminishes them.

Perhaps one of the pillars of patriarchy is the addiction or cult of youth. Americans revere youth far more than the rest of the world, which goes hand in hand with our country’s sexual assault statistics. The dinosaurs of pseudo-scientific “evolutionary biology” justify this with an uncontrollable, hard-wired impulse: women are attacked because they are simply too delicious and irresistible!

In the early 1980s, when I was first in the People’s Republic of China, I was a nubile blonde and considered “sexy” by certain standards. I had a regular role on the Paramount television series “Anything for Money.” The Chinese government thought interviewing an American TV star would be good for its audience.

To interview: “What do you think

from China ?

Me: “I always liked it. I appreciate a culture that reveres ancestors and old age. China seems to be an elder, while the United States is an out-of-control teenager. Everything must be fast, new

and exciting.

The interviewer was surprised because I had the ovaries to openly criticize my country. And the interview revealed my own fear, perhaps sexist or ageist: I’m afraid of teenagers or wannabe teenagers and the havoc they can cause. (I’m looking at you, Trump.)

The scariest creature to me is an out-of-control teenager, regardless of color, background, or financial situation. Why do you think old men use young men as cannon fodder? The combination of short-sightedness, invulnerability, strength, denial, and peer pressure is typically used as a weapon. The people in power know this.

Trump is a symptom of smart, outraged, ugly young white male privilege, even as older men and women of all ages have joined the circus. All the hallmarks of toxic masculinity are there: rudeness, belligerence, baseness, violence and youth supremacy.

A recent National Geographic article states: “The anti-aging market, valued at $40 billion, is expected to reach $60 billion by 2032. To avoid aging, people apply anti-wrinkle cream, soft drink supplements and lifting weights, among other interventions. .” I fully endorse weightlifting because it helps with everything, not just preventing aging, but everything else? No.

Look at the faces of women, especially celebrities, who have knelt at the altar of youth: I want to cry when I see their botched cosmetic surgeries. Don’t these women have friends who take them aside and say, “Don’t do it! That said, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling the need to look younger than I am.

As for this backhanded compliment, I should have said with a sneer: “Yes, my little pretty one. Indeed, I was very hot at one time, and if you are lucky, you will be as wise as me when you are between 60 and 70 years old. Hopefully when you have to hang up your warm hat, there will be some substance underneath…you’ll need it.