Is 40 really, really old?

[Snarky Oracle!]

I mean, really disgustingly old??

When DYNASTY was on in the '80s, a lot was made about the fact that the leading ladies -- Linda, Joan, Diahann, etc... -- were 40 (or older) and prime examples of ageless beauty.

And while that seems less unusual today in concept, most TV sereis' casts skew much younger.

Then, of course, there are people like Janet Leigh, a beautiful, intelligent, talent person, who seemed to hit a wall at age 40 and spent the rest of her life looking like a corpse Norman Bates might keep in his fruit cellar before dumping her into a swamp out back of the house.

What does this all mean? In 2017?

 

[Ked]

What does this all mean? In 2017?

That different people age differently. Some people age well, others don't. Its either genetics, or they take good care of themselves - or they don't. Several contributing factors.

Btw, Snarky, happy 40th birthday.

(Haha, kidding. I have no idea how old you are or when your birthday is.)

 

[Alexis]

No I am 6 years off 40 and I regularly get mistaken for being in my early 20s. I think now we are living longer and so we are aging better. I do not feel almost 40. I don't even think 40 means anything anymore...

 

[Ked]

No I am 6 years off 40 and I regularly get mistaken for being in my early 20s.

A few years ago, an older lady asked me what grade I was going into, not knowing I was well past college. At the time, I was offended and annoyed, because I was at the age where, as Natalie Portman once said, "When you're 20, you wanna look 20."

 

[Michael Torrance]

I mean, really disgustingly old??

When DYNASTY was on in the '80s, a lot was made about the fact that the leading ladies -- Linda, Joan, Diahann, etc... -- were 40 (or older) and prime examples of ageless beauty.

What does this all mean? In 2017?

I have a suspicion even then it was the PR department's terrible sexist diversion from John Forsythe, 63, being the leading man. But maybe our ideas about age have changed as has the reality. Social security was something people were due to collect at 65 and it was set when life expectancy was 70. Now people have to calculate how to live well into their 80s and 90s on retirement. And geriatric care is one of the fastest growing health industries.

As for people aging differently: I could not believe how hot Linda Grey looked in the TNT Dallas. She never stood out when I saw the old episodes, but it was like she had this amazing radiance at that age.

(FYI I turn 47 in January. Like Dynasty I am a Capricorn, which means we start out serious and turn sillier as we age )

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

It depends on what era and social attitudes we are dealing with, not to mention how life expectancy has risen into the hundreds in many parts of the Western world and the orient.

20 years ago my grandmother turned fifty and she looked like how I would expect a fifty year old would look at the time, she looked middle aged, but now that she's 70, she's looks like she's in her late 50s, my mother is fifty now, and she's often mistaken for being my older sister whose around the age of 38, which is awkward as I'm 28 myself.

My cousin who really is 38 is pregnant with twins, her first pregnancy, and she goes to a mother-baby class, at first she thought she would be the oldest would be mum there, it turns out she's actually the youngest, by a considerable amount of years too!
Most of the pregnant mums there were around the ages of 43 to 51
Which is completely unheard of

Had Angie Dickenson played Krystle, she would've been 50 in 1981 meaning that it would've been very unlikely that Krystle wouldn't have had a late in life baby a few years down the line, but now in 2017 its not impossible for a woman in her late 40s/early 50s to have a first child.

So @Snarky's Ghost in answer to your question 40 is still very young by todays standards in my opinion ;-)

 

[Willie Oleson]

40 is like a mature version of 30.

However, turning 30...now that really marks the end of youth - that's when you become really really disgustingly old - a sad old clown.

Indeed!

 

[James from London]

I like how Graham Norton put it -- turning fifty is like building an extension onto your forties, but when you reach sixty you're definitely downsizing.

 

[Ked]

40 is like a mature version of 30.

However, turning 30...now that really marks the end of youth - that's when you become really really disgustingly old - a sad old clown.

Indeed!

I knew it.

And yet wasn't that one actress in "Beverly Hills 90210" 30 years old when she played a high schooler? I know they got 30-year-old Trevor Donovan to play a 17-year-old on the reboot. Of course, in the former's case, she actually did look young enough, whereas when I first saw Donovan, I felt insulted: "They expect us to believe that this obviously 30-year-old is a teenager?!" I stopped caring after a while and just accepted the actor, since I thought he did mesh well with the rest of the cast.

So I guess turning 30 isn't a big deal - so long as you can fool people into believing you're younger. I think Blanche Deveraux put it best:

"Oh yes you can stay 42 forever. So long as you eat right, exercise regularly, and live with a bunch of women who look a lot older than you."

Which is why I enjoy being on this site, because I often get the feeling I'm possibly the youngest one here.

 

[Willie Oleson]

so long as you can fool people into believing you're younger

But can you fool yourself?

I often get the feeling I'm possibly the youngest one here

Yes.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

I feel far better now than when I was 20, and I certainly felt as old then as I do now -- after all, your earthly life is all you can remember, no matter how old you are.

But ..... from what I hear from my elders, of course... you slide from your 30s to approaching 60s so frickin' fast that it feels like there's at least a decade missing in there. You can't quite believe that that's the big number that's coming up. It seems too soon and sounds too ancient.

That said, some people seem older and more deteriorated or are deteriorating at 40 than others are in their 50s or beyond.

So it's weird.

Just drink your water. That's what I always say.

But can you fool yourself?

You must. That's the key.

That and telomerase.

 

[Ked]

But can you fool yourself?

I believe you can, actually. Which can either be a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on the circumstances.

Yes.

Awww. X)

Just drink your water. That's what I always say.

Right. Just take care of yourself. That's all you can really do.

Or you can do what they did in "Death Becomes Her" and drink a magic potion that keeps you young forever... except you'd also *live* forever, and I'd *hate* to be stuck in this world forever. Watching everyone around me grow old and die, having to go through every single event this world goes through... ugh. Plus, if you just so happened to "die", you'd be stuck in a rotting corpse for all eternity. So... yeah.

I think I'll just drink water. X)

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Telomeres, baby. It's all about them telomeres and telomerase which keep 'em long and turgid.

 

[Ked]

Telomeres, baby. It's all about them telomeres and telomerase which keep 'em long and turgid.

I have no idea what those even are.

 

[Willie Oleson]

you slide from your 30s to approaching 60s so frickin' fast that it feels like there's at least a decade missing in there

I guess most people are very busy "discovering life" from their teens till their thirties, there's usually so much going on.
Many people start to settle down around the age of 30, and then life becomes a treadmill of family, work and bills.
Now, this may seem like a juxtaposition, but when (almost) nothing changes, today looks identical to the day 10 years ago. And that's why it feels as if you've skipped a decade.

You must. That's the key.

Even if you know that "You still look so very young!" really means "I had no idea you were so disgustingly old!"?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Even if you know that "You still look so very young!" really means "I had no idea you were so disgustingly old!"?

Especially when someone turns 40.

It's... it's just so old!

 

[Ked]

Especially when someone turns 40.

It's... it's just so old!

Well, at least its easier for men to get older: we become "distinguished." Its women who become "old".

Even if you know that "You still look so very young!" really means "I had no idea you were so disgustingly old!"?

You know something, though? A while back, I saw a photo of Catherine Oxenberg when she and her family were doing a TV show together or something, and her face had been photoshopped to get rid of all the wrinkles. And she looked *terrible*. And then I saw a recent photo of her, wrinkles and all.

And she looked better with the wrinkles. ^^ I honestly did think that.

 

[Emelee]

I'm 33 but feel and look more like 25.
In the 80s and early 90s, people who were 40 looked much older than the 40 year olds do today, IMO.

But we have a far more obsessed about appearances society today. Women over 40 don't get the good roles anymore, except a few lucky ones who are not only good looking, but terrific actresses as well. Like Meryl Streep, Emma Thomson and Helen Mirren.

Take Beverly Hills 90210 for example. Some of the actors were over 30, playing teenagers. I don't think that would ever happen today.

I don't know if this is accurate or if it's just my imagination, but I feel that CBS is the network where it's mostly ok to age. They have more age diversity in their line-ups.

 

[Ked]

Take Beverly Hills 90210 for example. Some of the actors were over 30, playing teenagers. I don't think that would ever happen today.

Oh yes it has. With the very reboot of 90210, no less: Trevor Donovan was 31 when he played a teenager.

 

[ArchieLucasCarringtonEwing1989]

I rationalise my incoming thirties as being a teenager and twenties rolled into one, only you know alot more and you can actually afford to have fun and do the things you could only dream of in your teens and twenties.

I'm looking forward to my thirties, especially since I'll be in my thirties in the soon to be decade of the 2020s, if the new 20s will be anything like the roaring 1920s (especially since the 2010s are looking as dire and as miserable as the 1910s were, the hundred year cycle) with a dash of the 60s and the 80s, then I'll still be young enough to appreciate and enjoy the decade :-D

As for immortality, no thanks! I'm a believer of an afterlife and being reunited with your loved ones in a astral plane and the thought of never ever seeing them again would be gut wrenching, so yeah I would greet death like an old friend and explore this vast universe with my family and friends from this life.