That's a comment at the NYT article, "What’s Your ‘Biological Age’? New tests promise to tell you if you have the cells of a 30-year-old or a 60-year-old. Here’s what to know about them."
For some reason — vanity — the comments are sidetracked into the question how young you look. The article is about "tests for around $300 that [purport to] calculate your biological age by analyzing your blood or saliva and comparing changes in your epigenome to population averages."
Anyway... there's a difference between declaring how young you look and simply quietly admiring what you subjectively perceive as your relatively youthful appearance. Just remember other people are experiencing similar thoughts about themselves and everyone is comparing himself or herself with a stereotype of a person their age and it's probably a very negative stereotype. What does a stereotypical 72-year-old woman look like? Nothing like me, of course, the 72-year-old woman silently informs the image in her mirror. But if she goes about saying that to other people, they will laugh... to themselves if not to that face she ought to have admired only in secret.
So, keep your spirits up, however you look, and don't make me laugh, unless that's your aim.
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What does a stereotypical 72-year-old woman look like? Nothing like me, of course, the 72-year-old woman silently informs the image in her mirror.
No one is SO BLIND.. As she who will not see
Sounds like another way for the Chinese to collect Americans DNA. I did not read the story but assume Chinese involvement at the lab/testing level.
Just like 23 and me.
Gee, why could they possibly be interested in that?
Totally unrelated:
Chinese death rate from kung flu 4/mm (as in four)
US death rate 3,000+
John Henry
Now do aging and appearance "equity" by race. Asian women often look relatively young for a very long time. Black (skin) don't crack. White women who go to Africa and sit in the sun studying wild animals...eek!
Eat well.
Stay fit.
Die anyway.
The striking phenomenon my peers and I noticed is how much younger the face in the mirror subjectively appears vs the face we see in photos of ourselves. More than image reversal. Self sense is incredibly deceptive.
Make a point of demanding to be carded to prove you're entitled to the seniors' discount.
An old joke about Hollywood: high school with money. In many ways the boomers have always been high school with money.
I have no idea about looking your actual age or not, but I do know that there is a definite age penalty inflicted by marriage. Specifically marriage and especially kids will make you look and feel older, both to yourself and to others.
I'm in an age cohort where a significantly large disparity exists between the married and unmarried, possibly the largest in American history and you can almost tell who's married and who isn't just by looking at them. The 25lbs I've put on since getting married and having kids is stubbornly not coming off. Same for my wife. There is a large number of men and women that I served with who remain unmarried in their 30s and 40s and you can see it when there's reunions or in their socmed profiles. They look younger. And if they've taken care of themselves they look healthier. Of course they do, they have the time.
gilbar get over yourself. Ann gets the irony...when I look in the mirror I think I look fabulous too! Until someone takes a picture..
What others think my age is, has zero relevance to any part of my life.
I desire appreciation for the content of my character, I stopped caring about my appearance when I became an adult (arrival of heirs). From then on my actions are my focus.
Boomers, the generation that never wanted to grow up.
I immediately thought of the last 2 lines of this poem, here's the whole thing: The Mirror
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
A college PE teacher put it best: Being fit means being able to do what you want, from climbing Everest to walking to and from the mailbox.
I think boomer women especially think they look younger because they all still dye their hair and think about how older women looked like in the 70's and 80's. But permed, silver bouffants aren't the style anymore. Your grandchildren think you're old, even with your dyed hair, they think I'm old even though I like that Dua Lipa song. That's life.
While my wife and I do work at keeping our bodies and minds sharp, somewhat, we recognize that we're not 23 any longer (though that doesn't stop my mind from thinking like a 23 year old at inopportune times). But what I've noticed is that you can select places to go and people to be around that help you feel younger.
Like last night at the symphony. Typically it's an older crowd. Or...should I say, an old crowd. We look around and note that, among that crowd, we're the kids in the audience.
It's another reason to love the symphony.
Also the widespread use of sunscreen and the fact that no one smokes anymore does wonders for how the skin looks, compared to an older person in the 70s. But the young kids still think we're old. It's ok.
I will cop to sometimes secretly being happy that I look better than this or that person my age, but I'm over looking "younger" than my age. Let's face it - if you're well-off you are likely to look younger at a given mature age than a person in poverty at the same age - and just about everyone in the US is well of compared with most of the rest of the world.
The people we all do look younger than are prior generations of our own countryfolk at the same ages. I definitely look younger than my mom did at 57, and both of us at that age look younger than my grandmothers at that age. But how much of that is dressing, wearing our hair, and wearing makeup in the style of our daughters? I never once saw my grandmothers in jeans, for instance, and seldom my mom once she hit about 40 - and when she did wear jeans they had an elastic waist and she only ever wore them with tennis shoes that looked orthopedic.
“There is a large number of men and women that I served with who remain unmarried in their 30s and 40s and you can see it when there's reunions or in their socmed profiles. They look younger. And if they've taken care of themselves they look healthier. Of course they do, they have the time.”
I know marriage and having children are not everyone’s cup of tea, but I have pity for those people. It’s hard for me to imagine how lonely and empty life would be, especially in my later years, to have no spouse, children or grandchildren. What a recipe for failure!
Men have an advantage here since no on really gives a crap how old a man looks. Women are doomed to beauty standards. That’s just the way it is, no use blaming “The Patriarchy.”
I was in line at the grocery store, idly considering the older gentleman checking out ahead of me. He was purchasing alcohol and the cashier asked him his birthdate. He was born the same year as I was!
It's funny though, when you look at old movies, people that were late middle-aged looked like old people. People today do look younger than the people of yesterday. But then, the miles were a lot rougher, too.
It more important what you can and will do. Eat real food, move your body, lift heavy objects, make things, laugh, love. If you want to accelerate aging, stay angry and believe conspiracy theories
Just remember other people are experiencing similar thoughts about themselves and everyone is comparing himself or herself with a stereotype of a person their age and it's probably a very negative stereotype.
I've noticed there's a permanent age labeling phenomena, where we mentally mark a person's recognizable identity to their relative age forever, even with images of them in the past when they were younger than we are now.
It's a corollary to the Wilfred Brimley/Cocoon Line.
For example, Hugh Beaumont and Robert Young. They were "old" when I was young. Now that I'm older than they were when they did Beaver and Father, I still think they "look older" to me.
I regard this article as a setup for a subsequent report by 'experts' that Biden's biological age is 60-65 and Trump's biological age is 100-105.
For Aggie—Fun Fact that Angela Lansbury was less than 3 years older than Laurence Harvey when she played his mother in the Manchurian Candidate.
I still have my hair, which is not gray (unless the sun is glinting off of it)). So i think i look a fair amount younger than my 64 years and many people express surprise about my being 64. I have to admit I like it, and more importantly my wife likes it (and she looks good for her 60 years, and only her hairdresser knows for sure). My father and my father in law kept their hair until their passing at 88 and 92. My father in law still had dark hair till very late in life and was salt and pepper when he passed. My son unfortunately is losing his hair in his early 30’s, so the old wive’s tale about a man’s hair following his maternal grandfather is proven wrong.
I never attend high school reunions. I did run into a Facebook picture gallery from my 50th class reunion. I only recognized one person. The most frequent comment was "we haven't changed a bit."
I never went bald, and, thanks to dental implants, I'm not toothless. And--no thanks to dental implants--I'm not penniless. So I'm not sans hair, sans teeth, sans everything. I'll look comparatively good on my deathbed. That's a comforting thought.
I am 69. I look my age. I go the gym almost daily. I do yoga, palates, and resistance training. I am sure, I am more mobile and strong than my age peer group average. I look like a 69 year old person should look if they have decent posture and bearing. This make me look younger from a distance, because so many people my age have poor posture and a shuffling gait that makes them look older than they should.
Howard said...
It more important what you can and will do... If you want to accelerate aging, stay angry and believe conspiracy theories.
As if to make Althouse's point, the Trump-haters don't seem to perceive that kind of warning as even possibly pertaining to themselves.
Joe Biden never got fat. His teeth look white and sparkly. The hair plant operation wasn't 100% successful, but his hairdo is decorous and dignified. I bet when he looks in the mirror he sees a far more handsome and vital man than that creature Trump....The truth of the matter though is that Trump, despite being overweight and over combed, is far more youthful and energetic in appearance than Biden. There's something about Biden's halting movements and hesitations that make him appear way older than his actual physical appearance or even his many years.....I hope Trump wins but both candidates are way too old to be President.
If want a laugh, ask your grandkids how old you. You will get(at least I did) ages from plus 20 to minus 40.
Last year, I watched an old Spencer Tracy movie called The Mountain. Tracy was the old, craggy, retired mountain guide. In the movie, he said that he was 62 years old. Exactly my age. My hair isn't completely silver-white or my face filled with wrinkles, but I can't climb a mountain.
Sun and cigarettes really aged people born in the early 20th century.
Telling people you look much younger than you are isn't convincing anyone.
I rue the day when some dopey kid offers me his seat on a bus. Not that I ever ride a bus anymore. . . .
It was somewhat irritating when I started being given senior discounts without even asking. But then, I'll take the $$.
I find my aging pretty average, maybe a tad better in some aspects, a bit worse in others, but, all in all, I deviate little from the standard timetable. Go figure.
If you gaze long enough into the wrinkles, the wrinkles will gaze back into you.
I renewed my driver's license yesterday. The person in the license photo is scary. No one will accuse me of "aging well".
I'm 4 days younger than Ann. Why can't I look as good as she does?
I am 71… I have most of my hair… I’ve gotten my weight down to within 25 lbs of the weight I was at in the profile photo of my wife and I taken a year after our wedding. I walk 3 miles a day and I have all of my own teeth*.
* half original equipment, the other half bought and paid for, lol.
I was 36 the last time I was carded at a bar. 19 years later when I turned 55 I got carded when asking for a senior discount. The usual response from people much younger than me is, when I show my ID: no way!
Wince… for some reason, I associate Wilford Brimley with stuffing a turkey.
not age related (much, i'm 61 and a half), but Just got this mornings blood test news..
My A1C (average blood sugar) came in at 5.1, and i weighed 268.4 lbs.
16 months ago (July 2022) when they told me a was diabetic, my A1C was 6.6 and i weighed 374.5lbs.
So... Hurray!
However, hot 60 year old babes are STILL not pounding on my door, calling my name.
BUT! it should be warm enough this afternoon to get in a little trout fishing; so Hurray!!
I'm 68. When I look in my mirror, I do not see myself as 68. However, when I see myself in current photos, I think, "Who is that old dude?" I do flatter myself I'm a "young-ish" 68 compared to many others, and even compared to some in their early 60s or mid- to late 50s. But this may be due either to my not having lived as hard as others and/or self-delusory vanity. I am sure my two-years younger brother looks considerably older than I.)
What does a stereotypical 72-year-old woman look like?
Far better in 2023 than one looked in 1973 or 1943. Back then a woman of 52 already looked 72.
I run 75 miles a week and lift weights. I look old and wrinkley.
@RideSpaceMountain: "The 25lbs I've put on since getting married and having kids is stubbornly not coming off. Same for my wife."
Eat protein first at every meal, and it's fine to eat fatty foods while keeping your weight down. The body uses the combination of fat and protein to build muscles and functional tissues, and fat also lubricates digestion. The fat doesn't 'stick' in many people.
Learn to recognize and avoid refined carbs, as they will indeed make you fat -- soda, potatoes, white bread, pasta, fruit juice (or excessive sweet fruits), etc. Avoid potential water-retaining inflammatories such as tea, chocolate, dark fruits, and other foods high in tannins.
The more money you have, the better you look. (I thought everyone knew this.)
There's something to it.
Look at photos of 40-50 year olds from the '50s and '60s. People looked ancient then and died young, leading credence to the 'biological age' argument.
My 95-year-old father has a mental age of 40 and a physical age of 80 or so...pretty good.
But I'm still not sure I've got those genes from his side of the family...
Some time ago (how long it's hard to tell) my mom claims she went to the doctor and her numbers were so good "the doctor just kept saying 'Sandy, if you weren't sitting here in front of me I'd think these were from someone 20 years younger!'" And then it appears my mother treated those numbers like a LSAT score and never went back to the doctor for an update. She still brings them up frequently, like they're relevant and something to be vain about. It really sucks when someone lets their vanity get in the way of staying healthy, which is what's going on with her at this point.
'We look around and note that, among that crowd, we're the kids in the audience.'
Same with most cruises.
If you're 55 you're jailbait : )
Everyone also thinks they are a better than average driver.
I've never been able to tell someones age so I don't even try. I figured I was starting to look old the first time a policeman called me sir instead of punk.
I am one of the lucky ones- I don't look 57 years old- anyone who doesn't know me is always shocked when I tell them how old I am. However, I do think it likely that the gap between what I am and what people think I am is shrinking over time. By the time I am 80, I will probably look like I am 80.
"I regard this article as a setup for a subsequent report by 'experts' that Biden's biological age is 60-65 and Trump's biological age is 100-105."
This was what I was thinking, too! However, in Trump's case, they will claim he is 150 biologically- they just won't be able to help themselves.
I rewatched the film Network last week. William Holden had a big role as Faye Dunaway's love interest. Holden, born in 1918, was 57 when the film was shot, and is referred to repeatedly as "middle aged". I was astonished to see how old he looked, and how miscast as Faye's boyfriend. I don't recall noticing that when the film was released.
The examples of this are easy to spot. Bogart, Tracy, Walter Brennan, Edward G Robinson, the list goes on. Something has changed a bit.
BTW, the film Network has stood the test of time. Great dialog and performances. Extremely relevant to our current situation.
Since I've looked geeky since grade school, I'm mighty pleased that at 63, most of my hair (not beard, alas) is still dark, unlike my good-looking siblings and cousins. Unfortunately, I need a second mirror to see much of it, because it's all in the back. Sixty years of sleeping on my side have pushed my big ears close to my head.
It seems to me that age is something we sense, rather than just see. You can usually tell from a distance whether someone is older or younger, even if you aren't close enough to see skin tone/wrinkles. I don't know what it is. It's maybe whatever sense it is that makes us able to clearly recognize someone we know well even in a blurry photo or in a very dark room or from far away.
I was just babysitting a 3 year old, and she was adamant her 1 year old sister is not a baby, even though the 1 year old doesn't talk much and the 3 year old talks a lot. I have memories from when I was very young, and while I remember big kids seeming really big, I. have no memory of thinking anything but a tiny baby seemed babyish.
I think it's the same thing that makes us, when we are in our teens, think a 36 year old is old. But once you get to be 36, you see people from about 18 to 40 all looking about the same age. You start to tell yourself that 18 year olds might think you look 18 too.
This is the kind of crap that really matters to NYT readers and other bubble people. It's a wonder they have the time to contribute to the ruin of the country.
If you look young, other people will tell you. But you don't need to look young. You look fine as you are, "you" being anyone.
There may be some perks for older-looking people. Perhaps not all benefits go to youthful faces.
Genetics have something to do with it for sure. I have a passport photo of my mother, age 64, and obviously un-retouched. Wow! Smooth skin, and she never used any 'goop'. Hair streaked with grey, but not dyed. Not fully grey, even at 95. My profile pic is from 2016, when I was 67. And not only have I never used sun-block, but have spent over half a century in the field as both a geologist and a farmer with no tractor cab. Earmuffs for hearing protection precluded a hat. What's more as both a geologist and an agronomist I spent many seasons working at between 8,000 and 15,000 feet in the Rockies and the Andes.
I've earned my salt & pepper hair, and what wrinkles I have, for with them came countless wonderfully challenging experiences, along with a modicum of wisdom. Years as a college and minor-league athlete are, at last, catching up with my legs, although merely at the level of annoyance.
One bit of that wisdom, for you young guys, is that the leading cause of injury in older men is that we believe we're still YOUNG men. No direct experience, but having worked extensively in construction during my slow seasons, upon turning 70 I decreed "No more ladders. No more roofs." Recognize your limitations ahead of when they actually become a problem. Don't be shy about asking for help.
I wish that I had warned people long ago don't make me laugh, because those laugh lines now make me look older. Ah well, if you gotta go....
When my mother was 58, she looked in her early 40's - and had a second husband who was 70. Chemo at 59 and again at 66 made her look her age and more when she died at 70. Reality shows in our faces and joints. How can you not be proud of the reality of what your life has been?
Three days ago I passed her in age.
Professor Ann and I are the same age. I look my age. She doesn’t, she could pass for a much younger person.
Asians have an advantage.
Years ago my work had a cake and mini retirement party for a guy from another department that I barely knew (I wanted cake).
He was Asian, 60+, and looked about 42.
I think being thin and the voluminous jet-black hair helped : )
When looking at photographs of pro baseball players in the 1910-1940 period, I'm always struck by how old many of the players look.
Hard, tough men in their 20s and 30s, for whom pro baseball was a way to claw and scratch themselves out of the mine or the hayrick or the ditch ... many of them look 10-15 years older than their real age.
The actor who played Col Potter was 61 when he started on MASH. I thought he looked much older than that.
Self-esteem is based on reality, not narrative in my world.
A fit physique is the ultimate status symbol. It shows that you can commit to one thing for years with slow results. People trust you more because they know you won't throw them away at the first hint of difficulty. Go workout…
"So, keep your spirits up, however you look, and don't make me laugh, unless that's your aim."
Here we have Althouse declaring, God sees the inside.
Hey, I'm 70 but I look 40.
That's because all the 40 year olds around here are meth addicts.
There is certainly a genetic/ethnic element to the appearance of age.
Years ago I handled a case involving a dermatologist's controversial rejuvenation treatments. His target market was African-Americans, and it was then I learned the phrase, widespread among African-Americans, "Black don't crack". Since then I've noticed many older African Americans whose skin looks much younger than their chronological age would imply. Perhaps melanin has moisturizing properties.
"I was in line at the grocery store, idly considering the older gentleman checking out ahead of me. He was purchasing alcohol and the cashier asked him his birthdate. He was born the same year as I was!"
I find it disconcerting that I am the same age as old people.
When I looked at some pics taken recently of me deep, deep in the southern Hemisphere, I was dismayed at how doughy my face appeared.
When I sent them to my friends I blamed the gravity down there.
p.s. this thread reminds me of Billy Crystal's sage advice when he played a smarmy Hollywood talk show host on SNL:
"Remember: it's not how you feel, it's how you look."
I'm in my 50s, but I have the body of a 20 year old. I keep it in the basement.
If you have to tell people that you look young, you don't.
I got a feeling a lot of people praising how young current 70+ women look aren't subtracting all the cosmetic surgeries.
News flash: No Boomers are 80. Yet.
The generation of ghouls who won't let go of power are the so-called Silent Generation. We Boomers are also bad, in our own way. But none of us are 80. Yet.
"The article is about "tests for around $300 that [purport to] calculate your biological age by analyzing your blood or saliva and comparing changes in your epigenome to population averages."
If I pay them $300 they better tell me I have a body 10 years younger than I am. I am 60 but I have the body of a 59 year old.
Let's play "Beat the Reaper". Jane is 88, and she just died! (DING DING DING!!), She beat the Reaper! Joe is 81 and he just died!, (EHHHHH!!), Joe is a looser!
The last time I was carded at the liquor store was when I was about 58. I laughed and said “you can’t possibly believe I am under 21.” The reply was “no, but our policy is to card anyone who appears to be under 30.” I said, “okay, I’ll take that. “
"I find it disconcerting that I am the same age as old people."
I watched "Back to School" last week. Rodney Dangerfield was younger than me when he made the film.
"If you look young, other people will tell you."
How does anyone know how old you are to compare you to their stereotype of a person that age? Well, maybe you chose to tell them... but why? Seems like they only know your age if you told them and then they're likely to think you're fishing for the obvious compliment. Whether they're bullshitting or telling the truth when they say you look young for your age, they are STILL comparing you to a stereotype that is probably absurdly negative. What do people think a 50/60/70/80 year old looks like? Of course, this is someone who looks younger than this real person they see (unless the real person has some mental or physical health problems).
I'm not buying the implication that they way you know you look young is if other people have told you. The stereotype of an old person is too negative and it's human nature to flatter.
To be clear- "younger than me" should be "younger than I am today".
you have to be 18 (or 21 (or who knows?)) to buy a lottery ticket in iowa.
Much More importantly, the teller HAS TO enter a birthdate into the machine to print the ticket.
So, GUESS WHAT? You HAVE TO give an age that the machine will accept.. Doesn't matter if you're 71, doesn't matter if you're good looking for your age.. The HAVE TO have a number.
Suspect alcohol is/will be the same soon.. Wouldn't know, i gave up alcohol the same day i gave up illegal drugs
Peple are obsessed with age. I'm happy with mine and don't hide it. I have almost NO friends in my age group. Nearly all are dead. At a 50th HS reunion, one of the now-departed noted: "All the guys look great but I'm wondering why so many brought their mothers?"
I'm obsessed with beauty. Back in the day, my main man in Tokyo was a young Aussie working as a model who aspired to work on the other side of the camera. We knew a lot of beautiful girls and photograped them relentlessly. Good times! Bugsy made it to the top - you can see some of his work by Googling 'Graham Shearer'. Still with the same woman after 45 years!
There's a 'looker' down the street, I've called my girlfriend for years. She's 97. Still lights-up when she sees me and calls me by name (rarely remembers her daughter's). Then, there was the 89-year-old. I might have done her but for the fact she was my MIL (a rather famous model/cover girl in the 1940s).
Truth is: Great looking women of all ages cause me to turn my head for a second look. BTW, there are no attractive women that don't have 'the smile'. I would say nearly all enjoy being noticed.
I laughed a few weeks ago when I turned to check out a 30ish someone who'd passed me in a supermarket aisle - when she turned back I thought: "Busted". I was a little embarassed. Then, she treated me with a great grin and I realized she'd turned for another look, too. We both laughed and went our own ways -'ships in the night' - as it should be.
I spent most of October hiking in Switzerland. The picture that appears with my posts was taken two months ago. I celebrated my 81st birthday last Tuesday. I don't know how old I look. Eye of the beholder, eh :-)
@ Rich - a fit physique is the ultimate status symbol? With a load of self-congratulatory material following about what great character that shows?
I can't begin to tell you how insane that statement is. Grow up.
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