GRACE'S MUSINGS: Youth is wasted on the young
Whoever said it first – George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde or, more probably, a righteously angry midlife woman – the idea that youth is wasted on the young has been the basis for some incredible creativity of late.
If you haven’t seen visual artist Jonas Peterson’s photographic series of the same name, you’ve missed something wonderfully uplifting. The images depict a gorgeous cross section of older people dressed in flamboyant clothing, with bright hair and cheery make-up. In his brilliant Instagram Reel, they are moving gently to Stereolab’s Lo Boob Oscillator, and it’s so joyful, it makes your heart sing.
Peterson’s aim, with this combination of fashion and portraiture created by AI, is to highlight older people “as the heroes they are”, he says. The series sold out in less than a day, and it’s a brilliant comment on ageism. It got masses of attention (and love) for an idea that’s right at the heart of Studio10.
Peterson calls his work “a positive, quiet homage to people who’ve seen more than us, been there, done that. I wanted their confidence and pride to be seen. I used fashion to show off their personalities, their attitude and inner rebels shining through the facade of age.”
I love how his subjects revel in the world that they inhabit. I love the clothes and the colours and the hair. What characters they are – and what stories they tell. When you look at them, you see older people who are comfortable in their skin. They look well and happy, their lives interesting and full.
What these images do is challenge the idea that our value in society diminishes the older we get – and for many women, that ageism goes hand in hand with a hefty dose of the sexism that’s still so prevalent.
The actress Andie MacDowell nailed it when, on the red carpet at Cannes, she revealed her fabulous salt and pepper hair at the age of 63 – against the advice of her team. Talking about the double standards still alive and well in Hollywood – particularly when it comes to greying hair – she said: “I suffered in this business as an actress, with people always wanting me to look younger. For me, it hurts my heart that I can’t embrace where I am because honestly, I feel like I am enough right where I am.
“We don’t do that to men. We love an older man. We love men as they age. What I would like for all of us to do is to stop and consider how we think about mature men and how we think about mature women and really start gauging what we say and what we project.”
Older men are often judged on their accomplishments and their ability to provide. Women, meanwhile, despite all the advances we have made, and all the incredible ways we’ve contributed to the world, still end up wasting precious time and energy worrying about whether we look “young enough” – and the ways in which we’re judged for it.
We hold ourselves to impossible standards that aren’t applied to men, and allow ourselves to be trivialised by the pursuit of an unattainable goal.
We must take a long, hard look at ageism, and how we, as women, apply it to other women in particular. We need to question what makes another person valuable: who they are on the inside, or how young they look on the outside?
The joy of Jonas Peterson’s models is that they look their age – and they’re loving it. They don’t have smooth skin or firm bodies, but they exude life.
Why should we lose value as we age, when we have all that wisdom, experience and maturity to offer – as well as an irrepressible joie de vivre, if these portraits are anything to go by?
Just look at their faces: they are poignant, interesting and, yes, beautiful. I only hope I look as good as they do in years to come.
