I took the new People Magazine to a quiet chair in the library and began leafing through, stopping to read the article about actor and dancer Patrick Swayze, who passed away showing courage and love in the face of cancer. He was 57 years old. Anyone in his or her sixties can stop for a minute and think about the gift of life that we have been given.
I did not linger there, though, because the colors and silhouettes of beautiful dresses on the next pages caught my eye, followed by a layout with the upbeat title, “Chic at Every Age.” The young women’s style—the 20’s—didn’t interest me much. Yes, they are pretty and thin and unselfconsciously chic on the runway or walking out of Starbucks (as they always seem to have coffee or a cell phone in hand). I started paying attention around the age of Kate Winslet—someone who looks like she has a little history to go with the good looks and designer clothes. The ladies in their fifties were fabulous. I could hardly wait to see what beautiful women would grace the page called “sixties”—but it wasn’t there. I flipped back and forth, to see if the pages had stuck together, but they had not. The article ended with “Sigourney Weaver, 59.” Wait a minute. Where are the 60’s, the women of accomplishment and style who give me something to celebrate? They are not there.
Invisible! I’m not ready to believe that. Where are the beauties who grew up in the sixties? What do they look like now? Who wears her hair long and flowing and gray? Which ones look even better now, with rounded corners where hipbones used to protrude? Where are the CEO’s and grandmothers and community powerhouses?
I think we need to redress this blank page.
What is your idea of a chic woman in her sixties? Show the magazine editors what they are missing.
9/19/09
