Dear Editor,
Thank you for the delightful article by Milla Ling-Davies in the November issue of en. Her comments on the value of older people and the nonsense of judging people on how they look are heart-warming, as is the declaration of the Paris Fashion week 2023 that ‘ageing is now cool.’ But only if you are beautiful, it seems. Because ageism is based on more than how a person looks: it’s based on a ‘declinist’ view that perpetuates a whole raft of myths about older people.
In 2016, Vogue magazine celebrated its 100th anniversary with a cover photograph of 100-year-old Bo Gilbert. She was photographed for her very first campaign shoot wearing bespoke Valentino glasses, a Dries Van Noten coat, a Victoria Beckham top, a Lanvin necklace and trousers by The Row. Someone commented on its website that Bo typified how beauty comes from the inside, and another retorted that was nothing to do with it, Bo was simply a beautiful woman. And so she was, but her beauty would not have deflected negative ageist thoughts in itself – the animus would still be present in those who held it.
