Re: What happened to Angelina Jolie?

That would be a good topic. My friend's beautiful daughters at 15 and 19 are experiencing this right now and don't quite know what to do with it.

It's funny, the only attention I get now unless I really make a major effort in the hair, makeup and fashion department is form 60-something bikers at Starbucks - lol! I'm 42 and always looked young for my age up until a few years ago. Whatever metabolic processes are happening seem to have really sped up.

Mostly I'm only concerned whether my husband still finds me attractive, there's definitely a gentleness with each other that seems to come from letting down your guard of carefully maintained attractiveness, and that feels so much more honest, but it's a bit weird to be "less valued" in this superficial society because you've aged just like everyone else does, even though you feel like the same person inside. (I'd like to make a career change, and I'm actually concerned about discrimination at this point.)

Losing that attention from men - the obvious attention, anyway, is both liberating and a little depressing. I'm more comfortable in my skin and it's easier for me to talk to people of all ages, I'm actually less worried about being judged, but I sometimes feel like I'm being dismissed. I think that's what we do cross-culturally, value and pay more attention to the "attractive" people, whatever the current perception of attractiveness happens to be. I wonder where that is rooted in our lizard brains, it must have something to do with natural selection or preserving the strongest stock or something.