So, it was a lie. Forty is not the new 30. I’m disappointed. I thought Susan Sarandon and Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker had actually convinced American culture that there’s life after 39.
NPR reported this morning that while men have sustained the worst of the “economic downturn” (isn’t that what we’re calling it?) women aged 40 and up are having an especially hard time finding work. The average unemployment period–six months–has doubled, especially for middle-aged women.
How does this happen? I mean, who isn’t hiring us? Is it us? Are we betraying ourselves, preferring to be surrounded by youth to convince ourselves that we’re still young? (And is that so much better anyway?)
Or is it that lurking sense of youth against age–”us” versus “them”? We’re simply not cool and capable enough. It’s the parent/adolescent dance all over again. And if it is them, I wonder whether it occurs to them that “they” will become “us” eventually. Then what?
I’ve read and heard about ageism for decades. I admit, I never gave it enough thought. I was too busy stomping around about sexism. But now, how I can avoid it? It’s bellowing miserably at my front door.
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