I love the current memes that combine a photo of a gorgeous white-haired woman with text celebrating older women. These memes convey an important message.
But there's a serious problem: with rare exceptions, every photo is obviously someone who was blonde and fair skinned when she was younger. This gives the hurtful and disempowering message that only blondes can be wise, empowered, gorgeous elders.
We're all beautiful, inside and out. We're each a goddess with wisdom and power.
As a dark-skinned, brown-haired child in the fifties, I was constantly told I was ugly. I didn't have the light hair or peaches and cream complexion considered ideal in my prevalently Irish neighborhood. In my teens and later in my 20s, I was told by more than one man I was not beautiful. A couple of them actually were cruel enough to then point out women they thought were attractive and, no surprise, they were fair women.
As a little girl, I wanted someone to see my beauty. I fantasized about it. Despite what everyone around me said, and despite media's reinforcement of that message by almost exclusively highlighting the attractiveness of light women, I somehow still knew I was beautiful.
Be clear, I'm not obsessed with the oppressive ideology that women must waste their time trying to be beautiful. We're beautiful already.
I am obsessed with Nature's power, sacredness, and gorgeousness. And each of us is part of nature, with all its amazing attributes.
Just as media, family, and society told me I was not good-looking, they force fed me constant messages about not being smart or powerful.
Luckily, I long ago claimed my beauty, power, and smarts, knowing they depend on no one's opinion and are irrefutable fact. I repeat: we are all gorgeous and have within us Mother Nature's wisdom and power.
Now, as some of us are aging, we're again being told there's only one way to be beautiful, smart, and empowered: we must look like older blonds.
I do not want to go to the other extreme and turn this against my blonde sisters. We all rock! I simply want to honor and celebrate all older women.
Let's celebrate the beauty of elders dark and light, healthy and sick, with make up or not, etc., by posting photos of ourselves online and saying our age. Use a snapshot or a formal photo or a painting of you, whatever you prefer. Here's a picture of me taken about two weeks ago, age 66, on my front deck:
If you don't think you're beautiful, smart, and powerful, tell yourself you are anyway. It might be the first step toward seeing your true self and respecting your worth. I repeat: We truly are all beautiful, each of us bearing Mother Nature's wisdom and power.