So, comments like French author Yann Moix’s who has a platform as he has written 10 novels and won numerous literary prizes, will not send us back to the dark ages of self-worth and lesser-than-ism due to ageism. I was outraged (apparently along with most women) to read about the 50 year old French writer Yann Moix’s comments about 50 year old women.

He told Marie Claire this month that “The body of a 25-year old woman is extraordinary and the body of a 50-year old woman isn’t extraordinary at all. And….Falling in love with a 50 year old would be out of the question: For him, women that age are “invisible.”

If you care about this topic, you will want to read Pamela Druckerman’s opinion piece in the New York Times….
Honestly, we women have had it with the pressure to stay young, and to keep up with a 25 year old. And the reason this topic is getting so much attention in the press in Europe and now in the U.S. is, there’s an AHA moment when we hear these ageist comments. Women know the unspoken truth about the challenges of aging. We celebrate women who say screw it and opt for “natural” beauty but we know all to well that there’s much judgement (self-judgement as well) around the topic.

We wonder if we are dressing too young, if we should go gray, how to get a flat tummy like we once had and to lift the sagging skin. And we know it’s an uphill battle to fight aging. So, when a public figure who we could easily discount because we could just say “unrelated agist who should stay in France”, but we won’t because he so arrogantly and unabashedly pronounced his message across the global social media…well, he deserves to be “taken” on.

We have heard from men and women, comments about our own aging. When we hear men discounting us and actually igniting our fear of being invisible that so many of us have, it provides an opportunity to speak up in our own circles and remind each other of our worth and our beauty. I’m guessing that for those in relationships with men who are also aging, we would agree that they find us attractive as well. And, the most harsh critic is ourselves and sadly other women.

We obviously need to let toxic men like Yann Moix know that it’s not ok to call us “invisible” just because we are over 50.

What do you think?