By 2030, the number of people over 65 years old will surpass the number of people under the age of 18 in the United States, resulting in a nation in which older people will be the majority.
Does that mean that most of us will be obsessing over the wrinkles on our faces, bags under our eyes and silver streaks in our hair, or will we finally applaud our biological age? To do the latter, we need to focus less on halting how we change on the outside and pay more attention to healthy aging from the inside.
While age is just a number, each of us wears and views those numbers differently. And although ageism is prevalent in the workplace and marketplace, most advertisements geared towards turning back time target women.
Though men and women age at the same rate, age is perceived differently for men than women. If a woman has grey hair, she’ll often dye it to keep her looking younger until she’s ready to join the silver sisters, sporting a more natural look.
Yet when a man’s hair turns to a salt and pepper combo, it’s considered distinguished. When women put on a few pounds around the middle, they may squeeze into Spanx or resort to fad diets, cleanses and punitive plans while men might just loosen their belts and wear their shirts out of their pants. Of course this is a generalization, but if you pay attention to the ads for bikini bodies, Botox and skin solutions, women are most often the target.
