In the 1930s there was a movie called The Invisible Man. It was an adaptation of the novella by Ralph Waldo Emerson, written in the late 1800s. Unlike the scientist in this story who performs a procedure on his body to make himself invisible, I have performed no such procedure, yet I appear to be as invisible to many, as the Invisible Man.
Call me the Invisible Woman. I walk among you. I dine at the same restaurants as you. I attend the theater, and movies, read many books, magazines, and newspapers. While I may not be considered a genius, I still am an educated woman, with a lot of thoughts and opinions rattling around in this dusty old brain.
But you don’t want to hear my opinions. You certainly don’t want to hire me for a job, not that I would even want to work now at my age, but still there are many tasks for which I am quite suitable and for which you would be very happy to have someone of my experience, intelligence, good manners and finesse in your employ.
When you ask people to participate in your surveys, or you write articles for mainstream magazines, you always want to put us in an age box and unfortunately at my age, the box numbers don’t always go up that high. You’re of the (erroneous) opinion that Women of a Certain Age don’t fit into this youth-obsessed world. Who cares what we think?
Well I think you should care and not only should you care, but you should pay attention to what we have to say and perhaps learn something from us. We haven’t spent all these years on this earth without learning a few things. And we would love to share our experiences and knowledge with you. But to you, the young and inexperienced who seem to think that age will never catch up with you, we might just as well be invisible.
To all of you who would disregard us older women, I offer this suggestion – Think outside the box: The age box. The baseball legend Satchell Paige was spot on when he said “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”
Well I wouldn’t be 65 that’s for sure. I would, however, fit somewhere in one of your age boxes – probably about 35. That’s a good age. It’s the age that I feel, and think. I don’t kid myself that I look 35 but my mindset is very similar to someone of that age. I think young!
So the next time you come across a Woman of a Certain Age, please don’t immediately dismiss us or ignore us, judging us by our external looks, and treating us as the Invisible Woman, because I have a little secret to share with you and I admit, it does bring a wee smile to my face: One day you’ll join our ranks!