Millennials Will Redefine Aging; GenX Black Women Will Lead The Way
What’s so scary about aging anyway?
This is going to make some eyes roll but, I have a ridiculous amount of pride in my generation. I think the fact that Millennials have lived through so many technological shifts and changes while still managing to remain flexible and up to date (well, some of us at least) is truly the best thing about us.
That said, we are beginning the journey of becoming what society has deemed the “dreadful middle-age”. I have never feared aging and have never really understood the reasons why some treat what to me feels like a welcome rite of passage with such disdain. When I think about it, there have been a lot of articles written by mostly non-Black women about how society no longer reveres them after a certain age and how they are suddenly shuddered into a dark corner, no longer within the gaze of modern society. They are in fact, no longer the colonial muse and all is seemingly lost because of it.
Perhaps because I am a Black woman and my beauty has never been perceived as “the standard” in popular culture, this particular epidemic will not be one that I nor my peers will need to dread. More than anything, when preceding generations are filled with women who like Michelle Obama (58) and Sanaa Lathan (52) the existential dread of middle age seems quite honestly, less dire, and quite possibly more exciting to consider.
Gen X has historically has gotten little to no credit for doing anything phenomenal in culture and society, but I would be remiss if I did not pay homage the way Black GenX women are clearly setting the standard for us to follow when it comes to what aging can look like. It is overwhelmingly clear that the Black women in this generation are seemingly doing magical things to redefine how time is impacting who they are and how they show up.
If GenX Black Women are Paving the Way for what aging looks like, Millennials Will Pave the way for a New Aging Experience.
The “experience generation” (ie millennials) will likely remain true to its name until we die. This likely means that millennials will redefine what retirement looks like as we continue to push for enrichment, fun and live in a world where our money quite simply doesn’t stretch as far as our parents’ money did. More than that, our relationship with holistic wellness means that as we work to improve the outside of our bodies, our insides will also benefit from our desire both look and feel healthy. Our ability to adapt to new technology while also paving the way for new wellness movements makes us the perfect generation to begin the shift around what aging is, what it can be and what it might look like in the future, especially as we continue to live longer (assuming that the world does not come to an end). Finally advancements in beauty will also work in our favor and may make us the first notably ageless (looking) generation of our time.
Shifting Definitions of Aging
Today’s definition of “old” has more to do with our behaviors and mindsets and less to do with the fact that we may grow to look weary and haggard. And while nobody is really asking us, for many Millennial women of color, aging has become less of a plague to fear and more of an inevitable journey to embrace, not to mention the fact that we inherently age differently and the market has not caught up to our aging needs just yet. Aging for us is increasingly associated with financial stability, confidence and living life on our own terms free from the scrutiny of others and the criticism we often enact on ourselves in our younger years.
Becoming older also doesn’t seem to happen in secret with us- there’s no sudden surprise when we wake up and see ourselves in the mirror. This is due in part to how we share our aging journeys on social media, not from a place of shame, but often in jest and with sardonic undertones. Login to any social media platform and skits about age differences can be seen quite commonly followed by a litany of comments and message of people agreeing with the things that have been identified of making us older than our youth filled days. Do our hips and our backs ache? Yes. Can we no longer do all of the things we did when we were younger? Yes. But are we old and dead because of it- absolutely not.
When the women that you grow up watching are clearly still in their visual primes, and in amazing states, it’s really difficult to become downtrodden about aging when there are so many beautiful examples of what it could look like for you. Whether its Angela Basset (68) or Regina King (51), GenX Black women are winning and clearly letting us know that beauty gets greater with age.