Posted on 07/24/2008 8:53:08 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By ANNE McGRAW REEVES
If you're having a hot flash right now, you're hot.
Hair thinning? Memory fading? Skin wrinkling? Don't give it another thought, oh, aging baby boomer. Getting older is now chic.
The Middle Ages haven't been this thrilling since the exploits of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men.
Just when those of us born before the swinging '70s are beginning to wonder if the best years are behind us, along comes a set of midlife Midases who prove that age is, indeed, just a number.
Everywhere you look — entertainment, sports, politics — men and women in their 40s and 50s are redefining the constraints of age.
Dara Torres, 41, [technically, this makes her Generation X] is the oldest female Olympic swimmer and the first American swimmer to compete in five Olympics. With her toddler cheering from the sidelines, Torres beat swimmers half her age and broke a U.S. record.
Torres has won nine Olympic medals and stands a good chance to win more next month. Some have cried foul, suggesting that only drugs could have fueled her remarkable comeback.
She's heard the whispers, but Torres seems to be wasting little time on them. After you turn 40, that kind of gossip just doesn't mean that much.
And then there's Rocco Mediate, 45, the golfer who almost whipped whippersnapper Tiger Woods in the U.S. Open. Mediate took Woods to a playoff, finally losing on the 91st hole.
Another star who seems to have taken a long drink from the Fountain of Youth is Madonna, who turns 50 next month. Her latest album, "Hard Candy," features her mixing it up with young turks such as Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.
Videos to promote the No. 1 album show an ageless Madonna making it all look a little too easy.
The recently retooled nickname "cougar" is now more often used with awe instead of derision. Over-the-hill hotties, once discarded for younger models, are hitting their prime and hitting the town with youthful hunks 10 or 15 years their junior. There's no men-o-pause in their love lives.
Even Hollywood, that bastion of all things youthful, is finally giving older women a chance. Middle-aged actresses, once relegated to playing mothers, mothers-in-law and demented psychos, are heating up the big screens.
In the "Sex and the City" movie, Sarah Jessica Parker, 43 [Borderline Boomer], and her posse — including 52-year-old Kim Cattral — prove that there's life after hitting the big 4-0 and even the big 5-0. Fans flocked to movie theaters to watch the fearsome foursome party, flirt and accessorize like girls half their age.
Some of the most popular shows on television owe their success to such middle-aged stars as Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Mary Louise Parker and Kyra Sedgewick. Almost all of this year's Emmy-nominated actresses are 40-plus, with many in their 50s and some in their 60s.
There's even a new reality show, "She's Got the Look," on TV Land that features a modeling competition for women 35 and over. Meanwhile, age hasn't stopped rapper Flava Flav, 49, and hair-metal band front man Bret Michaels, 45, from searching for much younger soul mates on their reality TV series.
And in politics, Barack Obama, 46, has attracted young voters like flies to a fresh piece of pie. Obama's campaign has given new meaning to the phrase "popular vote."
Don't forget 60-year-old powerhouse Hillary Clinton.
So the next time you're looking in the mirror and bemoaning those roly-poly love handles, don't despair. Forty is the new 20; 50 is the new 30. You're not getting old, you're just ripening. And these days, ripe fruit is the sweetest.
(Anne McGraw Reeves writes for The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa. She can be contacted at citydesk(at)patriot-news.com.)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
As us Gen Xers used to say in the 80's.... "Gag me with a spoon!"
Generation Reagan Bump!
Hey--I like that. "The Reagan Generation"--
Duh ... the media and its advertisers are following the money bubble that is part and parcel of the boomer generation ... who'da thunk.
You ain't seen nothing yet, wait until they start inheriting the wealth of their aging parents.
To be fair: Generation William Ayers, Huey Newton and Angela Davis bump.
That's the problem. About 50% of the boomers never recovered from the insane ideas of the 60's. Today, they are the establishment, still keening away about multiculturalism, political correctness, hate speech, Amerika, homophobia, racism. All of that crap "ripened" in the 60's and it's getting pretty smelly; but apparently a whole new generation has bought into it and is about to help America put a shotgun in its mouth and pull the trigger.
And in 30 years, when this insufferable generation of narcissists finally passes, the headline will be: "Dying is now chic."
In about 15 years the boomers are going to start dying in significant numbers. I wonder what they will turn to when their mortality hits them squarely between the eyes. Will we see a sudden upsurge in religious practice? Will we see some form of fatalism? Maybe a kind of generational dementia or frantic flailing about for some reprieve? It will be interesting.
Why does this bother you so?? I’m turning 50 in six months and people tell me I look like I’m in my 30’s. I work hard at it and it’s a great feeling. I feel and look better than I have in my whole life.
fat and decrepit will never be chique
There’s already an upsurge in religion in this age bracket. I see and hear about it everyday.
Yeah, me too. And I have also found that I can store my spare change in the cracks in my face. Too cool.
Of course. Except for the psycho part, these middle-aged actresses are not believable as adults. So now they play themselves; pathetic, over-aged, adolescents.
That’s a good one.
Being lazy and out of shape is what they are talking about.
This article is not about being fit a vigorous in older years, is is about validating the destruction of the body cause by the hedonistic hippy lifestyle of the woodstock generation.
About celebrating the wrinkles and skin degeneration cause by pharmacuetical recreation. About celebrating weakness of the body by lack of use. About celebrating the weakness of the mind caused by intentional ignorance.
Funny -- I've always heard a different version of that idiom....
This boomer's parents had seven kids - even a big inheritance doesn't go far divided that many ways
That's a good one too. ;)
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
I disagree. Madonna is not ageless. But I'm not going to say that to her face, because she looks like she could beat me up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.