On aging and women...

There is always something reassuring, yet repulsive, about reading women (and men alike) and their attempt to "stay young." Lots of them are in display. Mike Jagger, for one, is infamous in the male species, who in his 60s, is still flashing his pouting lips. In the female species, we have an exemplary "model" of Madonna.

Don't get me wrong. I like Madonna. I've always enjoyed her music, maybe not so much the sugar-pops in her very early days, but her skills and music have matured and morphed to stay ahead of her times. And I like her attitude, not so much her tendency/need to provoke sexually, but her way of keeping her life firmly in her own hands and control.

I do have one problem with Madonna, in terms of aging, as she reaches 50 now, though. Not that I think being 50 is old. Quite far from it, I think there's still alot of life and legs left. But do we, as a collective group, really need to redefine 50 as the new 40 or even the new 30? Should we really accept our sense and space in time, carve out our niche in the 50-year-old's space, and hold our own; rather than competing for attention with the 20- and 30-year-olds? That's how I feel now about Madonna, and the Sydney Morning Herald article captures this essence well.

Recently, I watched Sex And The City (SATC), the movie. Honestly, I think it's a mistake for Sarah Jessica Parker to try to prolong a franchise that should have been graceful retired, much like Seinfeld. Do we really feel the need to see women stepping into middle age to talk obsessively about sex and their toy boy, as one of the main characters would have us believed? I don't think so. Not that Madonna is doing that much anymore (with her new found domesticity, kids adoption and all), but I really don't need to see a 50-year-old in fishnet stockings on stage. To me, it's just not cool.

When I find the need to see older women acting their part and have fun, I'd rather watch Something's Gotta Give, a truly funny movie and is age appropriate. To me, that's acceptance for the gracefully aged. Madonna and Mike Jagger are decidedly not one of them.