It's not (only) about looks...

If you follow my blog, you probably know I’m not a feminist… but today I feel downright misogynistic, to the point that I’m wondering if I should write at all.
As I was saying in my previous post, I went to a concert last night and, as anticipated, there was a big crowd of middle-aged women who went there driven by nostalgia, remembering Bon Jovi from his blaze of glory days… He’s past that, which is probably why he didn’t even sing that particular song…. but this is not about him…
It’s about women…. In my country there’s an old joke about two women who get out of jail after serving ten years together… and they stop in front of the gates and keep talking….
Imagine thousands of women doing just that… a crowd of women yapping and yapping… At one point, I found myself sandwiched between two groups of women engaged in passionate conversations…. I had to move away as grabbing people’s heads and violently banging them together is sort of frowned upon. I just don’t get it - if you’re together at an event I assume you’re friends and probably talk to each other frequently… what the hell is so important that you need to talk about it during the whole bloody concert? Why would you pay $50 for a ticket if you can’t be bothered to watch the poor guy on stage!?

That’s not all! What I found even more irritating is this group selfies’ craze… we tend to criticize the young generation for being obsessed with selfies… I don’t like this trend, but at least I can understand teenagers and young women, they’re building a brand for themselves, it’s part of the modern mating ritual and a seductive picture on your profile might land you with a desirable male… I’m sorry to say this, but in more mature women, it’s pathetic…. I was surrounded by middle-aged women posing for group selfies with their besties… A long process as they had to have the same pictures on all the phones. At some point, I felt pity for one guy patiently switching between the phones of the three women in his group, but judging by the look in his eyes he’d had enough beer to be past caring….
Let’s be realistic, once you’re in your forties, your looks are no longer your best feature, even if you are still on the market… and close-up selfies definitely won’t help. Besides, if you’ve reached a certain age and still think looks is all it takes, you’re delusional… If it were about looks, virtually all the available gentlemen would prefer the 20 something model… no question about that. Your partying with my besties picture won’t help... you have to have other things to offer, like a nice personality, being a good cook, whatever.
I understand that traditional social media is all about image and duck-faces, but you simply cannot compete with the younger generation. Yet, all of the ladies around me started posting their pictures to FB once they were done taking pictures, wasting another couple of songs while they pondered over captions… At least that kept them silent for a few minutes which was a blessing!
Luckily we arrived late at the concert and there was no chance of finding my friend in the crowd… I say luckily as I knew she was bringing other women and I wasn’t keen on being part of any group… but she sent me pictures anyway, yeah, a group selfie of middle-aged women dressed up in what middle-aged women consider fancy clothes, where the only fancy thing is the price…

Don’t get me wrong! Even if I do sound bitchy, it’s still about my oldest friend and I care about her very much… maybe it’s exactly because I care that I’m pissed about this delusional behavior… I hate to see someone I care about giving in to this ‘it’a all about looks’ obsession when I’ve been trying to reassure her for years, it’s not. A diet might help, not letting yourself go, also, but that’s not the key to finding a meaningful relationship…
Try telling that to all the women snapping selfies last night…

Thanks for reading