Time out! I want to know what this line means from one responder:

"I have had so many hang up on me when they find out that I am in that undesirable older female demographic."

Please explain why this segment, one of the most economically powerful in the U.S., is "undesirable."

Spareribs

Hi Kendall! SP ok? Your post struck me funny bone. A certain amount of innocence and naivity lends something to your post that is just cute and laughable. BTW we don't smoke the pine needles on the Bitterroot Cheryl, though we have had to breath it alot this summer.

I am loosing some hair on top, but I don't feel very well impowered but more so than if I used one of those tacky hair pieces or combed my thinning hair up over my head to hide what everyone already knows.

Empowerment is an internal job.

Larry

Larry

------------------
"If you see a man running up a mountain trail in Montana with a fly pole attached to his back, you are probably lost. LDD

quote:<HR>Originally posted by swell:
There are a fair number of 40 to 70 year old old women who run in local running groups and they generally seem pretty upbeat so maybe they are more empowered then us guys always looking to see who we might be beating.<HR>

I think you're onto something.

I will assume this is a legit post. There are two issues here. Being grey, and being athletic. I happened to know two people, one male, one female that were both 90% grey in their early twenties. The woman didn't start dying her hair until late twenties/early thirties. I think until that age, it was still obvious she was young.

I have a lot of grey, at age 43. It is not empowering. You hit a certain age and the tables turn. Sure with my bifocals on and a bit of grey, I look like the female CEO on board of directors. But now I cover most of it up, and it makes me look at least 5 years younger. I think at your age, that is just not an issue, so perhaps that is why you find that image empowering.

Being athletic is empowering at any age. Period.

Being gray-haired, in and of itself, will not empower you. Hair color has nothing to do with being a strong woman.

Like Enk said, being athletic is empowering at any age

------------------
Holly[/URL" target="_blank">

OK, here's the deal. I may have sounded a little nasty this morning, but with just cause. I'm 55 years old and come from a generation where there were absolutely no athletic opportunities for women. High school sports consisted of intramural basketball and baseball, and I think my junior and senior years we might have had a girls' track team. Factor into that parents who didn't have the time or energy to help their kids be more physically active, and you're looking at a family of overweight couch potatoes. I didn't start actively exercising until I was in my 30's, married and had my first child. Gray hair? Empowerment? I'm just so happy I've discovered what a working body is capable of, I've quit worrying about the small stuff. Kendall, if I sounded sarcastic and mean, that wasn't the case. It's just that today's generation of women don't know how lucky they are to be living in a world where so many opportunities have opened for women (yes, Title IX was a great thing), that to listen to them throw the "empowerment" word out there is hard for me to comprehend. You are blessed - take that and run with it, and the rest will work itself out, no matter what color your hair is.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by swell:
Interesting because we have not really defined empowerment. Does it mean feeling good because you beat someone or feeling good about yourself no matter what your pace. I'm 48 and folically challenged (no gray but much less wind resistance and above average cooling) so maybe I'm not your target but I have 18 and 20 year daughters and a 49 year old wife who run. I'd like to think they are as empowered as anyone.

Perhaps the blessing of age is you start to care less about the more mundane and trivial goals and more about what makes you happy. There are a fair number of 40 to 70 year old old women who run in local running groups and they generally seem pretty upbeat so maybe they are more empowered then us guys always looking to see who we might be beating.<HR>

Ditto!

This confirms it, engineers have a way with words...

swoon

I think we're way overthinking this "empowerment" thing with Kendall. I'm guessing she's a 19-year-old looking for some validation/support from us older women for going gray at her age, and that's just fine. At least, I wasn't thinking much about "empowerment" at 19 in the way I think of it with 25 more years' life experience.

(hi rosie!)