I pride myself in being not too concerned about my age. I mean, the alternative is death, so this is pretty good, right? But every so often, even I, totally zen Stutzer, start to freakout about my age when some idiot bursts out with a, “wow! You’re old,” when they hear my age, or check my ID.
Now, I’m just a common, everyday human who just works at a computer most of the day. No one really cares about my age, and I sure as heck don’t need to lie about my age for any particular reason. (I’m not dating online anymore after all… more on that later.) But women in Hollywood have it totally different. Why? The simple, and somewhat snarky answer is: Because Hollywood is full of butt faces who discriminate against aging women.
Time and time again, articles, blogs, and posts are published that contain information about some executive stating that so-and-so is too old to play a certain role. And that’s why this whole recent brush-up about Rebel Wilson’s real age is so weird.
According to Salon, Wilson got a lot of heat for saying that she is younger than she actually is. But why wouldn’t Wilson fib a little about her age? After all, this is the industry that has told Maggie Gyllenhaal, a 37-year-old actress, that she was too old to be cast as the lover of a 55-year-old man.
While lying about your age may be a necessity in Hollywood (if you want to work), many of us average, normal-job-having ladies lie about our ages, too. Why? Well, apparently men on dating websites have issues with aging women, too.
Now, I never had an issue with my age (32!) while dating around, but apparently, many women do:
– We reported a few months ago about the weirdo, bogus price-hike Tinder placed on over-30 premium account users. This hike was aimed at aging women and men.
– And get a load of this cheery antidote from the Salon article:
“In an interview at Match.com, ‘The Dating Race’ author Stacy Kravetz laid out the stark reality for women dating online: ‘Men tend to worry that women between 35 and, say, their early 40s are bound and determined to have kids. So even if they’re 35 themselves, men tend to look for women who are younger just to take the pressure off the situation.'”
Ah. The joys of some social realities.
Have you ever felt like you had to lie about your age to attain something? Do you think discrimination against aging women will ever cease?
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