While speaking with Fortune Magazine, actress, director, and producer Halle Berry talks about ageism, specifically calling out the double standard of aging between women and men, committing to “aging gracefully and naturally,” and admitting that she’s “longed for someone to say something to her other than, ‘You’re so pretty.’”
Speaking on her perimenopause and menopausal health company RESPIN, Halle Berry talked about aging and why women should embrace it, and she also called out the double standard of women and men aging.
She said, “I think, historically, you know, women, as we age, we just get ‘old,’ right? And men get ‘sexy.’ They get gray hair and they’re [called] ‘silver foxes.’ We’re just ‘old,’ right? And we’re ‘haggard.’ And society tells us, or has told us, that ‘our time is up.’ We should go out to pasture. We’re done with our baby-making years. We’ve been viewed as that being our primary purpose for being here, is to bear children. And when we’re done with that at 35-40, there’s nothing left for us.”
Berry added, “Well, I know that we’re just getting our groove. We’re just starting. But, women don’t really understand that yet because society has told us something different. So, they don’t want to talk about being a mid-lifer because that means there’s no place for them. They’re not wanted. So, it’s about us women reclaiming that narrative, right? And changing the way we’re seen throughout the entirety of our life.”
Berry also jokingly said she’s “proud” to be considered the “model for women getting old.” She added, “Aging is a privilege. It’s a privilege to age and we should see it that way. We should feel that way about getting older, right? We should feel like the crowned jewels of our society.”
Later in the interview, Halle Berry gave her thoughts on the changing and ever-evolving beauty standards and how they have affected her within the entertainment industry. She said, “I have always known that I’m more than this shell that I walk around in. I have longed for someone to say something to me other than, ‘Oh gosh, you’re so pretty.’ I’ve longed to hear other words. I know I’m more than this.”
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Halle Berry continued to reveal, “So, as I’ve aged, I’ve been determined to age gracefully and naturally. I think it’s a shame as women, we’re being told that we have to find a way to stay ‘eternally young,’ ‘forever 30,’ as though we’re not allowed to be human and do what we’re naturally born to do. We’re born to age and die.”
Berry added, “But, somehow as women, we have to do the unthinkable. We have to figure out a way to do it, and unfortunately, we’re turning ourselves into monsters trying to do that. So, I’m committed to being a spokesperson for allowing yourself to age gracefully, knowing that you’re more than this shell you’re walking around in.”
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