Why do we get so upset about being called middle aged? I guess for me it’s not the name per se, it’s the connotations which come with it. The expectation to be grown up, even worse, sensible! The fact that we should know better. The fact that as women, we should just literally fade to grey.
Well, I’ve got news for you, I’m a redhead. I don’t do fading!
At the time of this post, I am 46. I am self-employed and I am getting more vocal as time goes on. I am fed up with being told to behave in a certain way. The adage that older women should not have long hair, short hair or perish the thought, orange hair drives me mad! Oh, and piercings? Nope – they should all be gone! Rubbish… The heroines of my youth show no sign of this so why should I?
Middle-aged is defined as being from the age of 45. Technically that is correct because if I live to 90 I am half way there. But why does it have to be so bloody twee?
It’s not that I don’t accept that I am getting older. Far from it. I am totally OK with it. What I am not OK with is being told how that older age should look. None of us is the same. We all have varying different experiences of life, how we live it and how we see ourselves. Fitting in has never been my strong point. It seems that the urge to be different is getting stronger by the second.
I am now into the next stage of my life. It’s the stage that often gets hushed up, you know, the hot sweats, memory loss, rages, aching bones. The peri-menopause. Even the name is enough to bring you out in a rash… I don’t know what it is about women’s reproductive health that is so scary to the men in our lives? Actually, perhaps I answered my own question there. It’s the rages isn’t it? The fact that I can argue with my own reflection is probably enough to send any husband scurrying off into the furthest corner of the house!
Well, I feel better for getting this out there. This blog is not going to be all neatly packaged up like something from The Sound of Music, it’s more likely to be like Alien. Sweaty, scary and a heart-racing ride…
Not Middle Aged 