Sick of "youth" as a beauty ideal

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, I'm sick of "youth" as an ideal of beauty in our culture, especially when valuing the attractiveness of women. It's the definition of "hot" is pegged to age 18 and anything over that is automatically a cougar, milf, or some other idiotic, apologistic term for a mature, adult woman. The male ideal is equally stupid. I'll use pictures to illustrate.

The "perpetual girl" ideal; Kelly Brook, b. 1979:



Lisa Edelstein, b. 1966



Now, ask random men and they'll probably say Kelly Brook is "hotter", despite Lisa clearly seeming more mature, adult, and experienced in life. The standard is prohibitive. Know why plastic surgery assistance in health care systems is a feminist issue? Because aging women sometimes have to fix wrinkles, get a face list, chemical peel, etc. just to have an equitable chance of getting hired. Women's makeup and cream commercials are all pursuits for endless youth, with thousands of products and commercials assaulting women for their flaws. "Sort yourself out" is the message. (This style is well illustrated by The Gap's recent advertising here; as usual, the message is, "Fix yourselves, women!") It's bullshit. What is so wrong with age? Even though it cracks the body and wears things down, it is a powerful symbolic indicator of experience, power, intelligence, and achievement. Sure, at some point people get elderly and sexual attractiveness finally ebbs away, but there's no fucking way that process begins at 18 and accelerates as someone ages past that girly "ideal".

It's equally stupid for men. Who is more attractive:

Channing Tatum, b. 1980



Sean Bean, b. 1959



Tatum looks like an ignorant, inexperienced boy. Sean Bean looks aged like a fine wine; an intelligent, handsome, debonair gentleman. And yet, I've honestly posed this comparison to a few people and they gush over Tatum and consider Bean's attractiveness inferior. It's like when people think John Cena is hot. John Cena is a jingoistic boy image.

Admittedly, these standards of beauty are partly based on classical images of gender. They're still superior to those based on the obsession with youth. It's like the complete disregard for the human element of beauty; the focus is only on the meat.

[Shee]

For starters, I would put nearly everything I own on 9/10 women drooling over Bean instad of Tatum.  I'm pretty surprised that you found the opposite.  A LOT of women I know love older men.

"Even though it cracks the body and wears things down, it is a powerful symbolic indicator of experience, power, intelligence, and achievement."

Eh, some folks don't gain all of that through age, they just grow more bitter/obstinate/frustrated and it's anything but attractive.  I WILL agree that elderly get shat on way too much in America, but let's not be silly here.

The basis of a lot of attraction (granted, not all) is physical.  Physical!!!  Of course the younger girl is physically more appealing!!!  And the experience and intelligence and all that...why does that person deserve all this credit now?  Did they pass through the magical age wall where now they are sexy?  The standard is PHYSCIAL.  Nothing more or less and if you think it's more you're giving way too much credit to some dumbshits.  And there is a lot longer until you get into all the cougar talk.  Really.  It's not 19 BOOM you're too old.  As far as all the recontructive surgery and creams and whatnot.......yea it gets old.  But let's say you finally made it into the profession of your DREAMS.  Wouln't you do everything possible to stay there?

Look at how many perople have FUCKED themselves up after plastic surgery....in my mind it's less and less of an issue than even 5 years ago.  I have absolutely nothing to back that up, btw.

Being older doens't make you beautiful.  It makes you older.  What you've done to get to that point in life dictates everything.

[FaustWolf]

60+ year olds rock.

Sean Connery, b. 1930, in 1990:

Hells yeah. Nothing said "badass hunk" like the stark image of Captain Ramius.

But I have to agree with Shee on one point, and that is that men probably fare better than women as they age under our cultural views of age and attractiveness in the US. While I can point to Sean Connery as an example of badass aging on the male side, I'm having a difficult time thinking of women Connery's age who remained in the limelight as long...without plastic surgery.

I'll toss Enya in though, b.1961, in 2005:

Enya's always been awesome and beautiful.

EDIT: Oh, and lest I forget --

Michelle and Barack Obama, b. 1964 & 1961 respectively, circa 2008

C'moooooon...easily the cutest couple in Washington, D.C. right now.

[tushantin]

Of course the focus is in the meat! Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and the eyes often disregard a person's "mental experience and wisdom" which has very little to do with physical beauty. Physical beauty is usually a sign of health which ensures healthy mating (or survival in the case of children). As for guys being good looking despite their old age, it's not all of them just a handful who are much more healthier and "manly" which triggers attraction. This isn't feminism, it's the savage beastly instinct within us. XD

Yeah, Madona's over 50 I reckon and there are still young dudes around drooling over her.

After a certain age every man is responsible for his face

There's still a competition today about who's the healthiest and who mates the healthiest. If it weren't for this we wouldn't have been humans in the first place. Everyone's responsible for their own decisions, whether they wanna mate or how they pick a chick/dude, or even what path to follow. Usually people get so consumed over "their awesome within" that they completely disregard what they look like from the outside, which despite earning them credits at various places doesn't give the sign of health. Of course, ages between 18 to 30 are considered to be the "healthiest" for any human being.