Reads the title of the article in Indian Express. An Octogenarian participated in a beauty Legend. She knew something her competitors didn’t!
‘For age is opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress.’ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow has rightly pointed out.
There is something about the granny era. After a lifetime of chasing professional milestones, looking after the family, this is finally their moment to do as they please. Go off the grid, cock a snook at convention & live it up. Living a lively dream.
81 year old Choi Soon -hwa from South Korea did just this! A former hospital worker, she took up modelling at the age of 72 at the suggestion of a patient. Her children had flown the nest. Family income had never been enough. Endless time after retirement only made loneliness apparent that had always been there at the horizon.
This year when Miss Universe beauty pageant relaxed their age criterion, earlier bar was 28 years- she saw an unexpected opportunity. A chance to participate. She was dreaming a little dream . The usually ageist beauty industry with it’s impossible standards & its veneration of youth, was willing to play along.
In recent years, it has modified its criteria to let married women, single mothers & transgender women to participate. The award went to a 22 year old. But Soon- hwa owned her wrinkles, white hair & crow’s feet to win the Best dressed award!
Ther is another message in Soon-hwa’s confidence. The grannies know what the 20-somethings don’t, they are desperately trying to fit their lives into social moulds. That age is the realm of survivors. Who know what it’s like to wrest back control given half a chance & do things their way.
British poet Jenny Joseph wrote in ‘Warning’, ‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple/ With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me… / I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired/ And gobble up samples in shops…/ And make up for the sobriety of my youth’.
Wishing to fly, high. Living life without constraints & go as you like. So few get this golden opportunity!
A recent video on Tiktok had a 92 year old model on a fashion show. If she can do it, why can’t you?? Just do it.
Asian Entertainment 