Why, Exactly, is Mutton Dressed as Lamb?

Do you remember when we were kids, and women aged?  What would happen if hair dye was banned , if low-rise jeans weren't sold in a size bigger than an 8, and we all cut our hair short?  What if plastic surgery was no longer allowed?  Men haven't really changed--you can look at pictures from the 19th century, and once you get past the regrettable facial hair choices, men just look like men.  This guy on the left (Frederick Robie, somebody important in Maine) could be someone you work with.  Well, except for that dreadful tuft of beard.  But he looks pretty normal.  Give him a shave, throw a polo shirt on him, and he could be golfing by noon.

Now let's go to the distaff side of the equation.  Look at this woman from the 19th century. I couldn't really imagine  taking her,  as-is, and plopping her down in a Starbucks.  Well, I mean, we'd get her in some cuter clothes, but there is no way she could make the transition the way Fred  there could. And she's much younger than him--I'd say she is about 30.  Woman just don't "time travel" as well as men.

Okay, now let's check out the 1950s. See this man on the left?  I'm pretty sure no one would look twice at him, wandering around Nugget.  Except for the hat.  We'd have to lose the hat.  So how about this woman, below?  Look--she's got gray hair.   I remember when women who were over 50 looked over 50. Women don't look like this anymore.  And I'm not sure why.

I was  in Walnut Creek one day, walking behind a slim young woman with long, perfectly highlighted hair, low-rise jeans, and very high heels.  She looked great and I felt a bit schlumpy.  And then she stopped to look in a store window, and happened to turn to face me.  Ack!  She was 62 if she was a day.  It was very, very weird.  Mutton dressed as lamb at its worst.

I don't have any insights.  I was just pondering the whole situation. I'm not sure why this happens--you can trot out that older woman are dismissed, or that youth prevails, or...I don't know.  Is it for men?  If you are 56, why would you want to be with a man who wants you to look, say, 35? And even if you do somehow manage to look that young, odds are you'll still lose out to an actual 35-year-old.  I mean, ask Demi Moore how it all worked out for her. Personally, I don't want to look like a girl.  I'm not a girl.  I used to be one, but now I'm all grown up.  We should be striving for grace, elegance, dignity.  Trust me, I'm certainly not saying I'm graceful, elegant, or dignified, but I strive to be those things.  It's no good striving to be a 30-year-old,  'cause that ain't gonna happen.

My Literary Obsessions

What to read?  It's harder to decide what not to read.  Sometimes I leave the library feeling guilty about how many books I've checked out.  But that's the best part of the library:  if you get home and find out it's not the right book for you, you can immediately return it, no harm, no foul, and someone else can check it out.  Whether fiction or nonfiction, I have certain genres that I return to over and over with which I am, perhaps, more than a little bit obsessed.  I'm intrigued by the lives of women living in the Middle East, and I am horrified and fascinated by the way Jewish women tried to manage their lives and their families in the most nightmarish of circumstances. I love to read about treacherous travel from the safety of my little bed, and I imagine being a pioneer woman, once again trying to manage self and family under harsh conditions, whenever we drive to the Sierra.  My favorite genre is the "seamy side of London" category (I don't know what else to call it).  Pickpockets, prostitution, and insanity in Victorian London? Well, it makes me happy, what can I say?  Reading is one of life's great pleasures, and I am sad that Kids Today forsake reading for any manner of electronic stimulation.  Maybe one day they will find their way to books--we can always hope.  And now, a few of my favorites...

Books about women in the Middle East:

Princess by Jean Sasson (nonfiction); Eight Months on Ghazzah Street by Hilary Mantel (fiction);  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (fiction); Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (nonfiction, comic-book style);  A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco by Suzanna Clarke (nonfiction)

Travelogues (Armchair Tourism):

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (nonfiction);  Sand in My Bra edited by Jennifer L. Leo (nonfiction);  How to Shit Around the World by Dr. Jane Wilson-Howarth (nonfiction);  Notes from a Small Island and A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (nonfiction); Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (nonfiction); Baghdad without a Map by Tony Horwitz (nonfiction)



Holocaust  Women:

Holocaust by Gerald Greene (fiction);  All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein (nonfiction); Day After Night by Anita Diamant (fiction)

Pioneer Women:

Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith (nonfiction);  Impatient with Desire by Gabrielle Burton (fiction); One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus (fiction)

The Seamier Side of London:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (fiction); Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue (fiction); Hubbub: Filth, Noise, and Stench in England by Emily Cockayne (nonfiction); The Sexual History of London by Catharine Arnold (nonfiction); Dr. Johnson's London by Eliza Picard (nonfiction); The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber (fiction); The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (fiction)

So many books, so little time!