Hedging the ‘age factor’

 

It is not considered polite to ask a lady her age. Even when somebody has the temerity to pose the question, it is the generally-recognised privilege of a member of the ‘fair sex’ to hedge the question; or, if obliged to answer, to resort to a white lie. As a rule, ladies like to keep their age under wraps (the lame pun intended). The same can be said about a certain class of gentlemen.

Has the gentle reader noticed that, up to a certain age bracket, youngsters have a tendency to brag that they are ‘older’ than they really are? This applies generally to the early teens or thereabouts. After crossing twenty the situation is often reversed and most persons start to pretend to be younger than they really are. Ladies, let it be said, do this with a vengeance.

There is a certain point in age the crossing of which, most persons instinctively feel, is not in the interest of their ‘image’. So they try their damnedest to hold on to that ‘age barrier’ for as long as possible. Observation (research?) tells us that this age barrier is thirty years for the fair sex and forty years for the masculine gender. Once people reach this stage in age, they are most reluctant to let go, clinging on to it as if their very lives depended on it.

Ladies of fashion, characteristically, pre-empt the ravages of nature. Much before nature turns their hair gray, they have already altered it to a garish hue so that when the time comes the transition is hardly noticeable.

The rub comes in when the gentleman and lady in question happen to be husband and wife. In this circumstance, the pretence has to be what may be termed as ‘double-edged’, for want of better verbalisation. In some cases, where vanity is equally strong on either side, each complements the other’s efforts in their pretence to appear young(er). The couple turn up at social do’s in apparel that would suit people much younger than they happen to be. To complete the charade, they go all out to ‘act young’. If they happen to have children, they lie about the latters' ages too.

There is yet another class of couple – one in which the husband has no qualms about his true age and refuses to go along with the charade. Here the ambitious wife, put in a tight spot, starts the whispering campaign that she happens to be way younger than her husband. “I was in my teens when I got married, while my husband was of mature age. Arranged match, you know!” The husband squirms, dying to blurt out the truth, but wisely opts for discretion. The lady’s hangers on giving him a withering look, while the wife basks in her ‘acquired’ glory. In some extreme cases, certain ladies even go so far as to actually pretend to be ‘second wives’.

Then there is the other side of the coin. There are a lucky few who grow old so gracefully that they feel no need for pretence or subterfuge. They are the ones to be envied and looked up to. There are several such on the silver screen. Sean Connery is one outstanding example, Katherine Hepburn another. Both looked so elegant and dignified in their old age that it would have been a shame if they had tried to camouflage it.

All in all, it never really pays to camouflage one’s age. Vanity, though, often takes the upper hand. Manufacturers of ‘beauty creams’ and other anti-aging products continue to have a field day. The urge to look younger than one’s biological age is strong especially among the fair sex. No offence intended, but this single urge has helped produce more millionaires than many an industry.