Afua Hirsch (As a female broadcaster, I know how ‘lookism’ holds women back, 24 September) is right to challenge the enforcement of appearance upon women, and could perhaps go further. In general, ageing promotes beauty – as, for instance, when we compare an old leather-bound and hand-embossed volume with a flashy new paperback. Or, for that matter (and depending on taste) Chartres Cathedral with a London high-rise boredom block. The root problem is that age, as such, is grotesquely interpreted in our contemporary culture. Any woman in her 90s will have deeper and more valuable insights into the matters of life than any man of 40.
Elsewhere I have proposed that everyone over the age of 65 should automatically have the status of senator in his or her community – the senate meeting on a regular basis to discuss, report and analyse matters that their experience will judge with more nuanced wisdom than is likely elsewhere. This would be just one way to reset the appalling write-off of people as they age – and of women especially. Age is a growth – in both wisdom and beauty. Check with Rembrandt and others (including Tolstoy).
Ian Flintoff
Oxford
