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Women look really different as they age because they start to lose their looks as perimenopause kicks in in the mid 30s. It actually begin a little earlier than that depending on how well you take care of yourself. There is a lot involved in looking good past 30 and 40. Genetics, correct diet and exercise, good skin care, and after a certain ageHRT is crucial to continue to look good.
Yeah, the stuff that causes cancer.
I'm gonna go get right on that, even though the women in my family look amazing without taking Premarin.
I went to my 30th reunion last month. The women from my high school seemed to beat the odds. For the most part, the men looked like they'd aged much more than the women.
Most of the men had gained a lot of weight (like 50+ lbs). But regardless of their size, almost all of them had big guts, droopy jaws, and thinning/receding hair, which made them look much older. You could barely recognize some of them because they'd changed so much.
The women, on the other hand, were all immediately recognizable. The main thing that separated the women in their looks seemed to be childbirth. A good number of the women who'd had children were significantly heavier than those with no children. (At least a third of them had never had children.) In general, most of the women were only a bit heavier than they'd been in high school, say 15-20 lbs. Most were still quite youthful and glamorous. Only a handful looked bad, i.e., saggy skin, haggard, 50-60+ lbs weight gain.
My high school was in NYC, so I'm sure that's also a factor why many of the women looked quite good, as women in NYC tend to be a bit thinner and more into their looks than the US average.
Overall, genetics played a huge role, as the Asians and the blacks tended to look way younger than everyone.
Last edited by Pivot Point; 06-09-2011 at 05:03 PM..
I think it has to do with the overall survival of our species. Once a woman cannot get pregnant because of perimenopause and menopause, she is not as visually desirable to the male who can procreate well into his years. He goes after younger fertile women and needs to look good enough to succeed. Youthful good looks = babies. This is overly generalized for the sake of making a point, BTW...
I think it has to do with the overall survival of our species. Once a woman cannot get pregnant because of perimenopause and menopause, she is not as visually desirable to the male who can procreate well into his years. He goes after younger fertile women and needs to look good enough to succeed. Youthful good looks = babies. This is overly generalized for the sake of making a point, BTW...
But following that line of thought, all women should drop dead at 60 and get out of the way.
And yet, we live longer than men.......
But following that line of thought, all women should drop dead at 60 and get out of the way.
And yet, we live longer than men.......
Older wiser women are useful to society in general. Nobody nurtures and teaches like a Grandma. Somebody's gotta take care of Grandpa - LOL! When people "ran in packs" this was more relevant. Probably.
These are all just my goofy theories - I really don't know.
Lots of popular girls from my era had perpetual tanning bed tans, and I was smart enough to stay pale most of the time, and yes there is a difference in the years to come.
HOWEVER, for some reason I have more trouble recognizing the boys I went to school with than the girls. The girls pretty much look like more mature version of themselves or just fatter and wrinklier, but the guys who gained weight, lost hair or even filled out with muscle look really different to me. Sometimes even looking better, but the guys just do more changing after HS, maybe their faces fill out or something.???
IMO tanning is the biggest factor in women aging faster than men. In their youth (and beyond) women tan intentionally for the way it makes them look, damaging their skin in the process, whereas men tend to tan only if they happen to be out in the sun for some other purpose, like sports or fishing. And tanning beds are used more by women than by men. There have been twin studies done comparing youthfulness and skin damage between twins where one avoided the sun and one who intentionally tanned-- the difference is staggering.
Smoking/ drink/ drugs are also a huge factor but aren't gender specific. As others have pointed out, the more popular kids partied more while the geeks and rejects like me stayed home and healthy.
As far as childbirth, it's not inevitable to retain weight after childbirth, especially if you don't gain too much in the first place. You do NOT have to "eat for two" while pregnant, especially since most people in the US already eat too many calories (average calorie intake in the US is somewhere around 3700/ day-- almost twice what a somewhat active woman needs). I have retained only 5 pounds from my pregnancies, and since I was a bit underweight to begin with, I look fine.
Back in high school, and at times I always admired the beauty that most of the popular girls had. They had so much attention, and I always had that feeling that they were going to be beautiful for a long time.
However after running into many of them, after years I say to myself "oh my, what happened"??? I am not trying to be negative, but 10 to 15 years after high school many woman just dont age gracefully. The irony is that the girl that most of the guys just did not notice or get as much attention as the popular girls in high, look way better than what they did back than and much better than many of the woman who grabbed all the intention. They also tend to be more successful and independent.
I see this trend all the time, and my friends agree with me. One theory of mine is because most women who tend to be apart of that popular clique tend to drink, smoke, and party hard during those early years, become dependent on someone, get pregnant, etc. This is one reason why I think most men, and I believe men are shallow as they are desperate, look for younger women, immediately when they see signs that there woman is aging. Men know subconsciously that many woman whether we all want to admit it or not, do not age gracefully.
As I said this does not pertain to every single woman, but it is something I would like to look into. Men look better when they age, and for women it is the complete opposite.
I think you have a point there!
I tend to believe whether it be male or female, there's a bit of poetic justice happening to those folks: the inner (heart reflected) turning into the outer.
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