Smells like Ageism to Me
It’s nothing new that women are routinely bombarded with products to reduce aging, diminish feminine odours, remove unsightly hair, and blitz our fat, spots, cellulite, split ends and well, the list of products is never ending and I’m sure you get the gist. So when I read Michele Hanson’s article in the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/beauty.women I was surprised by how angry I felt.
Big business has now decided it’s not enough for us women to starve, scalpel, and shave our bodies to give them the strange, unnecessary illusion of youth, as our body odour will give our shameful age away anyway.
Yes, women. That’s right. We now smell old! Well, that’s what Harvey Prince makers of the ‘Ageless Fantasy’ perfume want us to believe. Just why smelling old is such a bad thing Harvey Prince decline to say. Maybe they are relying on the word ‘old’ being a conditioned subliminal trigger that makes women feel worthless, terrified, and part with vast sums of their hard earned money. Or perhaps the whole idea of ageism being abhorrent has passed them by. There’s certainly no money in being respectful and it certainly pays well for women to feel bad about themselves. It’s good for business, brilliant for the economy, and funds many a super-yacht. If millions of women’s lives are blighted by doubt, confusion, and impotent rage, it seems it’s just tough silicone titties
But, like I say it’s nothing new. Women have been led to believe they are valuable only for their genitals for as long as I can remember. Just look at older female celebrities. They are not praised for their achievements, but for looking younger than their years. Yet just because this situation is old news doesn’t make it irrelevant. Surely there is something implicitly wrong with a society that constantly refers to half its population along these line?
I call out to the women reading, don’t buy this product! I won’t be and hopefully my noxious sweat will repel the ageists and I can get on with being a human being.
I think you are over reacting. I would like to feel younger and be more active.
You can celebrate your age anyway but I want to be young in spirit, soul, body and mind. This is about rejuvenation.
Helen K
September 29, 2008
Hello Helen,
Thanks for your comment
There’s nothing wrong with buying & wearing perfume. There’s many fragrances I like. But, to me, a perfume marketed at older women to mask their ‘old’ smell is perfectly offensive.
Even if it were true, which I highly doubt, so what. Women have a right to old age. We shouldn’t have to chase youth from the moment we reach twenty. Surely our lives mean more that that? Couldn’t our psychological energy be better spent elsewhere? Than on fearing old age? People shouldn’t amount to their smell anymore than a person amounts to their car, home, job, sexual orientation, race, socio-economic status etc…
If it were a perfume to mask your sexuality, ethnicity, ability status, it would be universally offensive.
So, I say again, why is it okay to play the ‘anti’ age card?
I kinda wonder why you want to feel young? What does youth own that age doesnt? Cos when i question that, all i get is a head filled with marketing buzz words, stereotypes, and idealised imagery.
I really don’t think rejuvenation = youth
alexmorrisroe
October 5, 2008