health

Why "She looks so great for 60!" is a bald-faced lie.

Christie Brinkley’s People magazine cover.

Gah. If I read one more comment from an over-enthusiastic celebrity attributing her ageless beauty to drinking water, playing tennis or happiness, I am going to puke.

Enter Christie Brinkley. Last week, America’s girl next door turned 60, posed in a blue swimsuit for People magazine and shared with the world her beauty tips and secrets to looking young.

Her secrets to looking so youthful , wait for it… smiling and fresh air!

C’mon uptown girl, you can’t be serious. I’ve been smiling my entire life and love the great outdoors, yet in your photo we look of a similar vintage and you’re nearly twice my age.

If she answered truthfully we might’ve heard a response like this:

“I am genetically blessed.”

or

“I am in great shape but the photos have been heavily Photoshopped.”

or

“I have engaged in some cosmetic surgery.”

Instead we were given a fluffy answer and no acknowledgment of the hidden truths. If Christie truly wanted to celebrate her age, then she never would’ve allowed her images to be Photoshopped as heavily as they were.

But there is something that irks me more than Christie fabricating a fantasy about how much she loves her body now that she is 60. It is the bogus and phony pitch of pretending to celebrate one thing but really promoting another.

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Taryn Brumfitt: “I want to see a 60 year old woman grace the cover of a magazine who looks 60 and is genuinely embracing her lines and her age.”

Stories about celebrating ageing are bullshit, most articles are celebrating youth in the guise of celebrating ageing. If it were the genuine intention of a magazine to celebrate ageing, then we would see 60 year old women who actually looked 60 and the photographs wouldn’t be digitally altered to make them look any younger than they what they were.

Why are we only celebrating ageing when someone looks at least 20 years younger than they “should”. There is a wide gamut of what 60 looks like but to keep using surgery and Photoshop as the benchmark doesn’t do us women any favors.

I want to see a 60- old-woman grace the cover of a magazine who looks 60 and is genuinely embracing her lines and her age. I don’t want to see a manufactured “youthful” version of her, I want the real deal. And I am not alone. I’ve spoken to tens of thousands of women on this particular subject and the voice is strong – give us REAL images. (not real women because after all we are ALL real!)

Enough of the misrepresentation, the lies, the smoke, the mirrors, the bullshit.

Magazines, publishers, journos, our voices are strong but are we being heard? Can you please stop ramming these lies down our throats and give us what we want – throw us mere non photoshopped mortals a freaking bone would you and stop promoting an unobtainable ideal of ageing.

What do you think about celebrity tips for looking good as you age? Would you prefer more honesty – and a more genuine celebration of ageing?