It’s pretty safe to say that our society values youth as much as it values beauty . Oftentimes, it’s to the point where youth is beauty, and to be old is synonymous with being ugly .
Of course this isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the case. Aging means that you’ve lived life, and there’s nothing ugly about that! Unfortunately, not everyone’s on the same page there.
RELATED STORIES
In fact, people can be really ugly online, and that has nothing to do with appearance.
After posting a bikini photo, 57-year-old former model Paulina Prizkova got insulted by an internet troll for, well, posting a bikini photo.
But she didn’t let that troll take her confidence away.
Responding on both Instagram and Twitter, Porizkova posted her bikini photo alongside the troll’s comments, showing just how unnecessarily ageist and sexist this person had the audacity to be.
“A thoughtful reader comment on IG need an equally thoughtful response.”
On Instagram, she writes, “A woman of 57 is “too old” to pose in a bikini – no matter what she looks like. Because ‘Old’ is ‘Ugly’. I get comments like these every time I post a photo of my body. This is the ageist shaming that sets my teeth on edge.”
“People who believe prettiness equals beauty do not understand beauty.”
“…Beauty can be sharp. It can wound you and leave a scar. To perceive beauty you have to be able to SEE. This is why I believe we get more beautiful with age.”
“We have earned our beauty, we understand what it is, and we can see it so much better.”
“We have earned our beauty, we understand what it is, and we can see it so much better. There is no such thing as ugly and old. Only shortsighted and ignorant.”
Her message, as well as her confidence, resonated with a lot of people.
Women, in particular, are oftentimes shamed for getting older. The second you find a new wrinkle, or pluck out a gray hair, you begin to become “less beautiful” in the eyes of a society that’s obsessed with youth.
But older women are still beautiful, and many of Porizkova’s fans took to showing their beauty off in their own posts in reply.
Porizkova really inspired a lot of women out there to show off the “pain and suffering” the troll thinks older people have.
But honestly, they don’t seem to care.
In fact, they don’t look like they’re suffering at all! But I guess it just goes to show that beauty really is a matter of perspective, and being beautiful doesn’t have to be synonymous with being young.
And it wasn’t just women joining in on the “suffering.”
While women are often the targets of ageism and body shaming, it happens to men all the time, too. It’s equally as nice to see men embrace their age!
Hopefully, people who speak up over ageist trolls will help shift the narrative.
Getting older is an inevitable part of life, and that’s perfectly okay! What isn’t okay is making people feel bad for “aging wrong,” or aging at all, really.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
