People looking older in the past...

[QueenArseClangers]

Inspired by another thread about wearing clothes deemed ‘too young’ past a certain age.
I really think so. My grandmother (born in 1901) was dressed in a gaberdine mac and twin set once she was in her fifties and adopted using a walking stick on her 60th birthday as she declared herself an old lady!

Anyway, this photos in this article are fascinating.
www.boredpanda.com/past-young-people-look-older/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Queen. Your mum sounds fab. That’s an adorable baby well toddler pic of you as well.

@Bluntness100

Talk about internalised misogyny

Yes, god forbid we get to wear our hair as we please.

And wtf even is sexy hair. And who exactly wouldn’t be taking us seriously if we wear it long. Cover your femininity women. Cut that hair. And make sure irs nothing too stylish. It’s the only way.

Oh and whilst you’re at it, no bare legs, no heels, no arms on display, no fitted clothes, no make up, you make sure no one finds you attractive. Because then it’s you whose asking for it.

It’s almost like some people think either;

You need to make yourself look as much like a man as possible to be successful because THAT’s how to get ahead.

Or

It’s impossible to be attractive or enjoy experimenting with your appearance in whatever way you like and be a successful woman.

I for one LOVE the fact that you can have a shaved head, green/blue/pink hair, curls down to your bum, an Afro or braids, a long plait all the way down your back etc not to mention tattoos or piercings if that’s your thing, an androgynous style or super feminine or even bag Lady style if you want and

Nowadays

Most people these days don’t actually bat an eyelid and are psychologically evolved enough to know it has no impact on ones ability to carry out their job nor their intelligence levels.

No idea where the random nowadays came from

I actually think these ludicrous comments about women’s hair are based in jealousy, the poster clearly perceives long hair to be attractive, hence the derogatory comment that you can’t be taken seriously in the workplace with it, because we can’t be intelligent and attractive now can we.

There's definitely been a change in hairstyles with today's being a lot younger. I think people in the past looked more dignified. Sometimes people look a bit silly with an old face and a young, dyed hairstyle.

@Staffy1

There's definitely been a change in hairstyles with today's being a lot younger. I think people in the past looked more dignified. Sometimes people look a bit silly with an old face and a young, dyed hairstyle.

Like hyacinth bucket?

@TomPinch
Fantastic poem. And a brilliantly apt extract. Haven't read it in years - must dig it out.

Most of the women from the late 30’s until the early 90s ish had short fried over processed hair that looked like a brillo pad, with a brief hiatus into beehives and awful feathering. I also think Diana’s hair, though fashionable at the time, was unflattering, often severe and over processed. I think women in the 1920s and further back had dignified looking short and long hair styles but for much of the 20th century women’s hair options were awful.

At least now there are great and easily achieveable options for short, medium and long hair and it doesn’t look like there are only two generations...school girls and bubble perms/roller sets as in the past.

What a great conversation to open OP! I'm sure there are many different avenues for discussing it from :)

yep I know many women work outside from home now it’s a misconception that women, especially mothers working outside the home is a “modern” thing.

For working class families they always worked! They had to!

Both my grans worked from they were 13. Most of their working lives they worked in factories on production lines. 1 was fortunate enough to retire in her 60’s, the other for a variety of reasons had to work into her 80’s.

No maternity leave or maternity pay they had to take the time off “sick” and pretty much return to work the week they’d given birth, the babies and children were cared for by relatives (not just grannies or great grannies but older siblings who might have only been 10/11 years old themselves) or on occasion through an arrangement with a friend/neighbour (shift workers tended to do this a lot) and VERY occasionally they’d use some kind of very informal, unregulated paid childcare.

The gran who had the stillborn twins was back at work the next day as her employer expected this.

Utterly horrific really but that’s how it was then.

Aaaaw, thanks @Awwlookatmybabyspider

This is her recently with her ‘suffragette cardie’ and pinched our glittery boots.

Bloody love her. For my last birthday she insisted I get a new tattoo and her pay for it!
She introduced me to the Brontes so I had a Jame Eyre one done and she loves it 😊❤️

That’s horrific @Graphista.

People would smoke like a chimney back then.

@ClinkyMonkey

Full poem here:

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land

My gran was absolutely beautiful before she had children. She started her family quite late, I've seen pictures of her at 27 looking really young, and in her 30's looking like her own mother, headscarf and all.

There's also a lot to be said for sunscreen, it was fashionable to have a tan and over the years it takes its toll on the skin. I know I look a lot older with a natural tan as it dries out my skin and couldn't live without my fake tan drops for a bit of colour.

Early 1960s fashion could take you from 18 to 35 in a afternoon

@Graphista Oh I know they worked outside the home (& tougher more physical riskier work) but when they got home they still had a tough time & very few men helped & the best food tended to be for the working man the wife often served herself the carbs giving the dc the remains after the dh.
I know of some stories from my Great Aunts & Grandmother that there were men who did things like (DGU) who lit the fire & made tea for his wife before he left for work at some god awful time - & lets not forget men worked really physical jobs for low pay & very long hours as normal (6 long days a week) with,if they were lucky, only a week or later 2 weeks holiday a year. Women had many more dc more miscarriages (some "brought on") limited contraception, limited healthcare (until the NHS) child birth was along & risky business. & earlier marriages & the stress of War rationing isolation etc

@Maverick101 that video is amazing! She looked much better before.

That would be "an" afternoon...

Predictive text -- the grammar fail gift that keeps on giving

Claire Rayner the agony aunt, wrote in her autobio of how one her jobs as a young maternity ward nurse, was to go round and put a glass of water by each bed, for the mothers to put their FALSE TEETH in ! She was born in 1931, so this would have been early/mid 1950s.

Internalised misogyny on both sides, it seems to me.

A woman who cuts her hair doesn’t ‘look like a man’ and isn’t doing so to ‘look like a man’.

She’s just a woman with short hair.

Talking of Diana’s hair I always thought she looked better when she wore it flat, it seemed more modern compared to when she went all bouffant and ‘Dynasty Di’ as the press called her, but it was all the rage back then. She did go back to flatter hair towards the end of her life and it made her look more her actual age (young).

@trixiebelden77

Internalised misogyny on both sides, it seems to me.

A woman who cuts her hair doesn’t ‘look like a man’ and isn’t doing so to ‘look like a man’.

She’s just a woman with short hair.

That’s a very strategic read of my post there.

I never at any point dissed short hair nor did I say “short hair makes you mannish”.

I have short hair ffs.

I was reacting to a poster who said you shouldn’t be taken seriously in the workplace with long, “sexy”, “Cinderella” hair.

Which was followed by Bluntness (sarcastically to that poster) saying “cover your femininity woman” and suggesting that certain body parts should be covered.

To which I said

It’s almost like some people think either;

You need to make yourself look as much like a man as possible to be successful because THAT’s how to get ahead.

Or

It’s impossible to be attractive or enjoy experimenting with your appearance in whatever way you like and be a successful woman.

My point being, for some, ANY sign that you are a woman at all is seen as inappropriate/distracting/too sexy for the workplace and that the only way to be taken seriously is to make ourselves as mannish as possible. Because woman = unacceptable for those people.

It’s fucking weird to suggest hair length or “sexiness” should be some sort of a spectrum on which we are judged as worthy or unworthy of being taken seriously in our workplaces. In all honesty, I was outraged at the woman who suggested that.

Short hair = mannish was your inference. Not mine. I know I’m a woman thanks!

[quote QueenArseClangers]@VinylDetective your parents were very attractive. Your DM reminds me of Maggie Gyllenhall.
They don’t look ‘old’ for their age.
Your mum’s skin looks glowing.[/quote]
Thank you. Everyone who sees that picture says they look like film stars. Mum was a very beautiful woman, in every way.

@QueenArseClangers I've tried searching but do you have a link to dressing too young thread that you referenced?