In today’s society, women are under more pressure than men to “age well” and, quite frankly, to avoid any visible signs of aging. Plastic surgery is becoming more common than ever, and women are paying for costly beauty treatments in hopes of looking young again. I doubt anyone is thrilled to start aging, but women take a significantly harder hit than men regarding gender and beauty standards. Before social media and the rise of severely unattainable beauty standards, this pressure for women to look permanently like they are in their 20s was not as prevalent as it is today. Unfortunately, women are pressured to look ‘forever young’ and criticized and sometimes looked down on for no longer being in their “prime.”
How do we know this? Well, we know this because men have blatantly said these sexist and ageist comments about women many times before.
People who criticize women’s appearances are everywhere. However, unfortunately, in America, we have heard and seen powerful individuals in society use their platform to knock women down and add to the problem. For example, our former president Donald Trump is infamous for his disgusting comments about women— one comment, in particular, said, “30 is the perfect age for a woman.” Horrifying— I will not get into that right now.
More recently, an anchor from CNN News, Don Lemon, made a similar comment, live… on air… about GOP Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley. During one of Haley’s speeches about her presidential candidacy, she mentioned that America is not past its prime, but many of our presidential candidates are. She continued to push for “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians older than 75.” What Haley meant by this is that, at a certain age (75+), people aren’t as mentally qualified as they were when they were younger.
A week later, Don Lemon made a comment saying that Haley should be careful saying that because she is no longer in her prime; he said, “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, when a woman is considered to be in her prime, is in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s. Clearly he is not referring to “prime” as an appropriate age to run for president— I think everyone can agree that a 20-year-old president does not sound like a good idea. Lemon said Haley was “past her prime,” meaning she is past the age where she no longer meets societal standards of being sexually appealing. Haley is 51 years old. I’m not saying I would like her to be my president, but her age is certainly appropriate for presidential candidacy.
Not only did Don Lemon say such a disrespectful and sexist comment on live TV, but he also said this while sitting next to two of his female co-hosts. Sexism and ageism are two very prevalent forms of discrimination in the United States, and sometimes it feels like it is only getting worse. I want to hear from my readers: How can we combat ageism and sexism in the United States?
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