It’s the last tolerated prejudice. But Femail’s had enough. It’s time we called out those day-to-day moments when we’re patronised for no longer being young…
While scrolling through Instagram, I saw an ad that featured underwear with a woman clearly in her 60s. That’s a model not just with long, grey hair. She also has proper crepey skin. And a saggy, appropriate age.
Evidently, I clicked on the Follow button. Few companies are willing to represent us. We with our lived-in bodies and ‘sad face’ belly buttons are like kryptonite to the advertising industry. It just can’t get its head around us.
Christa D’Souza (pictured, claims very few companies would dare to represent women in midlife
AARP is an advocacy organization for seniors in America. It found that despite being more than a quarter of America’s population, people over 50 are only 15% of all media images. And when they do, they’re almost never wearing lacy underwear.
We might be holding hands with each other going cold-water swimming, (now such a predictable ‘older-woman’ trope for the advertising industry), but sexy lingerie? We are not the only ones who can see this!
Bravo to Swedish underwear company Understatement Underwear! They may, however, be outliers once in a while, I fear.