The idea of a magazine for women over 40 about women over 40 really appealed to me so I got myself a subscription to More.
After having More in my home and my head for a year, I am definitely opting for less.
Less about parentheses and brow lines and crepey eye lids. And non-surgical face lift products. Hair cuts that will shave 10 years off your face. Regimens that tighten, reduce pore size, fade age spots, lighten dark circles.
Could it be I am what my phD friends would categorize as an official outlier of this consumer market demographic?
Nah, I buy face creams. Several, in fact. Sure, they have to be on the shelf at Target or Walgreen’s and cannot exceed $10 an ounce, but I’m a consumer nonetheless. After all, I want to do what I can to look my best — within reason, but that’s a whole nother post…
What really makes me want less of More is not its lack of content about women who are doing amazing things with their lives after 40. It’s the underlying message it projects that seems to say “you really can’t be amazing — no matter what you do — unless you look youthful.”
I am hungry for words and images that promote vitality as beauty. And until I find them, I will choose to turn the pages of magazines filled with young French models.
They are young and thus, without sags and creases. And that truth, I can buy.
JULIE ANN STEVENS 