Ahead of International Women’s Day this weekend, our columnist is urging others (and herself) to stop worrying about the tedious and boring topic of ageing and to pour energy into something more valuable, whether it’s relationships, work or new experiences
• I HAD to go jeans shopping the other day. It’s not a job I enjoy, and it was something I had been putting off for an age because I just couldn’t face the usual ordeal of the trying-on of five million different pairs and potentially then not finding ‘the one.’
As it happened, it was a far more straightforward experience that didn’t reduce me to tears in the dressing room (as has been the case formerly) and, wait for it, the pair I got are ... a size 8!
Now, I absolutely must point out that I am not a size 8, and I’m not sure I ever was or ever will be. My body politely declines to go there and that is fine by me, so the only reason I’m mentioning this at all is to highlight just how inconsistent, crazy and absolutely bonkers women’s clothes sizing is.
They just don’t make any sense, and they just mess with our heads. The jeans I bought are probably classed as ‘older lady jeans’ and wait for it, there is a bit of give in them, a grand bit of a stretch. I’m certain I’ll be able to wear them regardless of whether I’m having a ‘good’ week or not, and that is a weight off my mind – the only weight off I’m concerned about!
• The whole sizing thing got me thinking about how much value we attach to what’s on our clothes labels or what the scales say. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit this past while bemoaning my numbers on both, avoiding mirrors, photos, and even occasions at times as a result of how they’ve made me
feel.
I met some pals for coffee the other morning and our wrinkles and the changes to our body shapes were the first topic of conversation. It’s almost a default setting, hardwired into us. It was the same at a recent girls’ night away.
Honestly, I’m starting to think it would be more acceptable to say you were having an affair than to admit you weren’t actually that bothered about your crow’s feet or simply getting older! What is wrong with us!
• The entire anti-ageing conversation is so tedious and boring, not to mind absolutely illogical. I’m not saying we should eat a packet of biscuits, or give ourselves permission to sit on the couch every night, and that we shouldn’t make an effort to live well, but there’s no point denying the fact that we’re ageing from the day we’re born.
So yes, lift the weights because you want to be able to continue to take your socks off, take the vitamins, eat well, move your body, stay in touch with people and have a purpose (maybe not all on the same day!), but also accept that there will be crow’s feet, grey hairs, chin hairs and quite likely some back fat.
Columnist and broadcaster Barbara Scully, who spends a lot of time in West Cork, was on TV recently and something she said really stayed with me. She said the only time you stop ageing is when you’re dead. It’s a fact, so get over it.
• This Saturday March 8th is International Women’s Day, so it seems as fitting a time as any to not just accept the changes in our appearances but to go a step further and celebrate the fact that we’re above ground, and alive. We need to stop wasting precious time bemoaning the passing of time, and put our energy into something more valuable, whatever you like: relationships, work, new experiences.
Kate Winslet says beauty is a feeling, not what we look like. (Photo: Shutterstock)The narrative is shifting, thankfully, and there are a few celebrities that we can look to for some sage words on the topic, such as the actor Kate Winslet, who said recently that beauty is a feeling, not what we look like; and Emma Thompson, who memorably told us not to waste our life’s purpose worrying about your body. Wise words from wise
women.
We should all seek out such wise women in our lives to encourage and support us. Who knows? We might become one ourselves one day! That’s a real aspiration; forget about fighting the passing of time.
• I’m quite a fan of International Women’s Day. It’s my daughter’s birthday for starters and as I never quite manage to mark Women’s Little Christmas in January, despite my best intentions (probably still putting the decorations away!),
this day presents a chance do something nice and usually that’s throwing a birthday party surrounded by lots of little ladies and it’s fabulous! The theme for IWD this year is ‘For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.’
Without sounding flippant I’d like to add that we might all stop worrying about the size of our thighs too.
• On a parting note let’s hear it for one woman who has done her fair share to both help and threaten to push us over the edge over the years, and that’s Mummy Pig, who has announced that she is pregnant with her third little piglet.
Yes! Peppa and George will welcome a new sibling in March, to coincide with Mother’s Day. And all I can add to that is thank the Lord the cartoon no longer features on our TV schedules, and good luck to those that it does.
