Show Dorothy Dix Talks I INT IT A PITY AND AUD ISN'T IT SILLY ALL THIS THIC PREJUDICE AND ArID AND DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MIDDLE AGE WHICH 18 iS REALLY THE HIGH SUMMER OF LIFE WHEN A WOMANS WOMAN'S IN FULL BLOOM QUERIES DOROTHY DIX WIlY is it popularly considered a crime for a woman to be middle aged TV Heaven knows It Is an offense against society to which no woman Is willingly No woman would be middle aged if H she could prevent It It IL Ou On the lie contrary so 80 frantically ly lv anxious are arc men wc-men to ward off the awful reproach of ot being middle aged that they sub sub- subject ic themselves to voluntary starvation and spend fortunes and undergo the tho tortures of the damned in beauty shops being scalped and beat- beat beaten beaten en and boiled alive In order to offer otter a 11 convincIng Ing log alibi that will prove they are not guilty To the young woman we offer al almost al ai- most slavish adulation Just Juat by reason of her youth the she It la a queen who can cando cando cando do no wrong although she the slaps Mrs Mn Grundy In the face and breaks break all iii of the Ten Commandments and Is It a dumb Dora besides TO 0 THIS TillS old woman we give reverence re and re- re respect reI To I 1 sped and the sentimental and romantic ad- ad DOROTHY DOR THY OIX DIX that we bestow upon the antique We regard grandmothers as we do o early American maple maple maple-as as something precious even though they never bad had any beauty or grace about them It Is only middle ago age that I la is taboo Yet at middle age a woman Is nearly always at her very best Frequently she U Is bet bet- better better better ter looking than she was as a girl Invariably she Is more Interesting Inter Inter- Interesting esting sating because no woman however dull can cOIn live forty five makes her years without acquiring a fund of experience that conversation better worth listening to than the meaningless chatter of a debutante And Arid If a woman his has any mind and soul the passing of the years educates her and broadens and deepens and ripens rIpen her so eo that In middle age she Is la no more to be compared to callow than mellow old wine Is U to made last homebrew MOR is middle age a a. blight upon men mon It H Is no reflection on a mans man's NOR II character for him to be middle-aged middle or for him to lose hi his boyish fig ng- figure fIgure ure and acquire a few wrinkles and have his hair beat a a. retreat off ort his forehead Indeed middle age is considered an asset rather than thana middle he generally reaches the peak of ot a 1 total loss loss loss' to a man At age efficiency in business And on the stage when they want to portray a real heart- heart makes as u a sophis sophia sophisticated sophisticated and aed an wrecker home-wrecker he always up man of the world with a little patch of gray on the temples middle Is laid and none JT IT IS only the women n on whom the curse of ot age may escape It except by dying young oung It Is the ghost that haunts the boudoir of the beauty for she knows it is bound to get her no matter how carefully she watches out It is what makes the coming of ot the first white v. v hair a tragedy It is what makes women shed barrels of tears is what turns and use pounds of massage creams over every wrinkle It honeyed compliment into a drop of poison polson because full well the every recipient knows know's that soon they will be saying behind het be back that she is getting middle And she cant can't help It poor thing So far have we carried this thin ridiculous prejudice agaInst mid mid- middle middie die dle age that It ha hat has become almost a Justification for unfaithful unfaithful- unfaithfulness nets ness In husbands and a cause for divorce around with little When we hear of a married man min chasing flapper flipper who Is young enough to be his daughter the explanation tion ion that Is offered 1 Is Well you know his wife has hu hugot got middle I. I IF no one could expect a man still to be In love lore wIth a middle aged AS 21 woman As if her being middle-aged middle wiped out of a mans man's memory the he years of devotion his wife had given him the struggle she has made to help him get a start in the lie world and make the money he is throwing away cm ous a gold digger the days and nights she had watched by his sickbed In all ill good truth the average middle-aged middle woman Is It Just as OIl looking good and attractive as the average middle aged man She Is no more likely to have lost her waistline than he hat has his and she generally has a lot more pep pcp and go to her but you never hear heir of her forsaking her perfectly good old husband and Installing a eating cake kid In his place VET this Is common comman among men and it is what makes wives lie awake YET I at night dreading middle age and keeps them counting their calories and makes them have their faces lifted The plight of the woman who Is married and who realizes realize that she Is In danger of losing her husband because she hat has got middle ged Is bad enough but that of the woman of middle age who must support herself Is worse still because men carry the absurd worship of youth even Into business and every door doorIs Is virtually barred bred to a woman after she passes pastes out of her Ids Os THIS does not apply to the woman who has held down a good job forI for THIS I many years and has proved exceptionally competent She has made herself indispensable to tu her employers and can carry carryon on but let even such a woman lose her situation and have to seek another position and she finds It almost impossible to find one Men Ien do not want homely aged middie aged women around them They want pretty fresh young ones and for this they are willing to put up with Ith poor and sloppy work done by girls who offset their deficiencies by vamping ramping their bosses and giving a a. note of ot gayety to the drabness of an n office Why men prefer a girl who cant can't spell or add up a column who It Is letter per per- perfect perfect of figures correctly to a middle aged woman only the Lord who assembled the queer bundle of contra contra- we call cOlli man knows Certainly not all business men are Lotharios But the tact remains that any haired bobbed bobbed hi Ired half haf clothed up paInted little flapper has a hundred times better chance to get a job than thin a haired gray quietly dressed middle middle- aged woman middle-aged middle woman will m prove provo the VET It is a one to shot that tho the YET I better because she Is bound to make good at her Job while with the young girl Irl it is Just marking time lime until she can catch a husband hus hue husband band to support her b r. r So that's that all ill this prejudice and dis dla- discrimination But Isn't It a pity and Isn't It silly crimination against middle age aae which after all Is It Just the high summer of life when a woman Is It really In full bloom 7 DOROTHY DIX DIXo Copyright by Public Ledger |