Women looking and feeling good at 50
By Kulbinder Saran Caldwell - Published on Monday, 01 February 2010 09:34
At the dawn of a new decade, today’s 50-year-old women know they have many more years of active living ahead of them. They are called the Quintastics, along with the many other roles they play as daughters, mothers, friends, bosses, wives and lovers. They already have a lifetime of experience and 2010 is the year they celebrate what Picasso called “the autumn of a woman’s life” and discover their second wind.
You’ve heard the expressions “30 is the new 20” while “40 is the new 30”, but this is different. At 60, editor-at-large of Saga Magazine Emma Soames says, “We’re welcoming an era in which 50 is the new 34. They don’t feel their age.” Having just left her 50s behind, Emma looks at women a decade younger than herself with pleasure, pride and relief. “This new 2010 generation can look forward to another 30 years of active life, while the generation born a hundred years ago were within a few years of the end of theirs at 50.”
Many women start to dread looking in the mirror as they start to age and feel a tremendous pressure to look better, as Helen Mirren has admitted. The 64-year old actress says that she has insecurities about her looks. “You go, ‘I don’t want to look at the face any more’, and I understand that, absolutely. I think people should be allowed to do whatever they want to make themselves feel happy.”
The message is clear for today’s Quintastics - be yourself and resist the surgeon’s knife. “As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority. But, in order to like themselves, they must reject trivialization by others of who and what they are,” states Germaine Greer. It seems like trivialization comes in many forms - husbands, bosses and boyfriends seeking younger women to replace them and the average person on the street that believes that women hitting their 50s cease to exist.
This year there will be about 836,000 Britons who turn 50 with that number rising in 2011 to 868,000. Greer warns, ”Women over 50 already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the Western world.”
It used to be that a women in her 50s were revered. “When I was a child”, declared Hilary Mantel (57), “no one supposed that women over 50 were invisible.” The Book Prizer winner continues, “ On the contrary, at 50-plus, these women ran the world and they knew it - they were unyielding, undaunted and savagely unimpressed by anything the world could do to them”.
The new generation of Quintastics have taken a page out of the past and as they refine 50 for themselves, they provide guidance to those that will come after them.
THE ACTION WOMEN: Jerry Hall (53), Sigourney Weaver (59), Amanda Redman (52)
There are those that choose to continue learning when they hit 50, almost half of British women will take up a new skill - salsa dancing, cooking or studying a new language. Hall shared, “A lot happens at 50 - the best thing being that you just don’t care any more.” While Weaver is still snagging those coveted roles and most recently played the action heroine in the blockbuster Avatar.
THE ENIGMAS: Michelle Pfeiffer (51), Carole Bouquet (52), Isabelle Adjani (53), Ines de la Fressange (53) and Kristin Scott Thomas (who turns 50 in May)
They are women that dabble in cerebral extra-curricular pursuits and have elevated themselves to an ethereal plane. They refuse to refer to their age or events in their personal lives - that is except Pfeiffer, who said, “If you think hitting 40 is liberating, wait until you hit 50.” They wear discreet jewelry and sheer black polo necks, have fine genes which get a little bit of cosmetic help from the so-good-you-don’t-know-it’s-there variety.
THE INVERTED ADOLESCENTS: Madonna (50), Kim Cattrall (53), Sharon Stone (51), Carol Vorderman (50 this year), President Sarkozy’s ex-wife, Cecelia Attias (52)
These women are late bloomers, they have become more attractive and successful as time goes by; therefore, they are not ready to give up the party lifestyle. Stone’s big acting break came in her mid-30s. All of a sudden she was posing nude in Playboy and landing roles. Recently she became one of the oldest women to be on the cover of Tatler. “I’m happy with the person I am now,” she declares, “with this 51-year-old-person. I think 40 to 60 is where it all comes together for women. At this age, you have thoughtfulness and dignity and spiritual elegance… I have had zero, nothing, done to myself; no lifting, no Botox, no injectables.” On the darker side of the Inverted Adolescent is the “cougar” which is a myth propagated by older women on the “hunt” for young blood. It is not a compliment, neither is a “swoftie” - single women over 50 living it up in nightclubs and tweeting about their experiences. Falling into these categories is Madonna with a 21-year-old boyfriend herself, something that is not recommended that non-celebrity Quintastics should try at home.
THE KOOKS: Ruby Wax (56), Tilda Swinton (who joins the clan this year)
Living life on their own terms, somewhat weird or eccentric which is what they prefer to call themselves. They make decisions that is right for them - Wax gave up on Hollywood before they turned their back on her: “You don’t see many women on TV in their 50s. My motive for moving on was that you’d better have a job until you’re old. So you should get another interest”. These women are slightly off of centre but definitely still in the spotlight; they get an obscure hobby, learn how to work a tasseled scarf or raging red lipstick.
THE HUMORISTS: Emma Thompson (50), Lorraine Kelly (50), Jennifer Saunders (51)
In Britain according to recent studies, the 600,000 “older” women have never been happier. This includes the country’s divorcees, widows or spinsters. They wear their laughter lines as a badge of honour as they use humour to quash their insecurities.
THE PROFESSIONALS: Lionel Shriver (52), Meryl Streep (just turned 60), Julianne Moore (joins the others this year), Condolezza Rice (55)
Right from the beginning, these women concentrated on their craft so they would be respected for that rather than their looks. These Quintastics are rewarded with enduring success. “Meryl Streep is working so much,” cites Stone, “because she looks like a woman we can all relate to.” To keep it that way, they don’t resort to cosmetic surgery, along with having a confidence in their own abilities and a pragmatic optimism, all of which sets them apart. Writer Lionel Shriver sums it up by saying, “Is my life close to ideal? Totally. If I could live my life again, would I change almost nothing - besides a few bad orders in restaurants. How could this be, for a crone of 52? Because 50 is 50, full stop. And the 50s are fab.”
Source: Walden, Celia. "Quintastic: 50 is the new 30 ." Telegraph.co.uk. January 28, 2010