Are Women under Construction?

Women…where to begin? We are a work in progress, aren’t we? Or maybe it’s just my generation?

As for me—and women I know and love—we start the New Year (every New Year) by seeing ourselves as a project that needs improvement. A juice cleanse, perhaps, to get rid of the extra Christmas pounds really quickly. We need our swimsuit figure back—yesterday. More probiotics, enzymes for digestion, and collagen because…(I have no clue what this is for.) A green drink as seen on TV because…again, I have no clue what it is good for.

Food supplements, more protein, no carbs, less sugar…our plates are full of restrictions and rightfully so. We are in it to get old but look young. Another drink, also the collagen certainly doesn’t end up in our sagging facial contours, but mostly in the toilet—so does the money we spent on it.

Celebrities lead the way. Nowadays, they are shooting up an injection to be thinner and healthier, until some of them look like skeletons. Of course, let’s not talk about the fact that you paralyze your intestines with a diabetes drug. We are here to be perfect. May we women never forget it.

Celebrities make millions selling us products, and we buy it.

We urgently need to get the nasty cortisol under control with tips and tricks. The yogurt can no longer be eaten without added creatine. I bought supplements just because it seemed everybody else was using them too. I might be older, but I am still in (it).

We have face-tightening LED masks, products offering external youth are available all year long.

I often wonder what would happen if women suddenly stopped constantly seeing themselves and their bodies (and also their homes) as in need of optimization. The entire industry would collapse, and patriarchs would probably have less to laugh about, if we had more time to pour our energy into more important things than into our expression lines.

But we are not there yet, perhaps never will be. Instead, we women sell each other this fairy tale of inadequacy, which must be fought with tips, tricks, and, above all, products. Tiring. But hey, the fact that we are all so busy with individualistic self-reflection and self-optimization is exactly what we wanted.

The older I get, the more I understand the insanity of our lifestyle. A lifestyle that I followed until I didn’t.

One day, I woke up and decided not to care anymore. I wear what I want, when I want it. My hair color changes with my mood, so does the style. My mind and thoughts are colorful, and so is my wardrobe.

Is it age-appropriate? Yes, of course, because I am wearing it at my age.