Editor’s letter:
From the Weekly’s Sarah Henry
As humans, we love to “put something in a box”. We love to take people or situations and neatly label them with assumption. We all do it, as much as we’d like to think we don’t. On a fundamental level, it is the way we are wired. And with good reason. If our minds had to process everything we encountered as unique or one-of-a-kind, we’d literally have a neurological meltdown, so instead we categorise – we put something in a box. But there’s always a downside, especially when it comes to people. When we put people in boxes,we limit who they are. We stifle their greatness. We group them with a set of rules that determines how they should look, act and be, and never is this more evident than with women and age – it seems the older we get, the smaller the box becomes.
I’m about to turn 44. I’m a mother of a 10-year-old. I have a mortgage and life insurance, and from time to time, I’ll watch an episode of Coronation Street.
I even own a pair of sensible shoes and can make a serious gravy. I understand how MMP works and can appreciate flannelette. The other night, I donned sequins and went out with my girlfriends. I danced on a table and got home at 4am – people were surprised, judgey even, when we were discussing our weekends come Monday morning! Why? Then I realised, “Oh, there must be no postmidnight passes in my box.” I was to get firmly back in there. Well, boo to that.
In this issue, we chat with all sorts of women who refuse to be put in a box. Case in point, our cover girl Dame Judi Dench, who’s draped in couture, making TikTok videos and still owning the screen at 86. Then there’s Sarah Jane Adams on page 50, who’s got a bit to say on the matter.
“Ageism is the most invisible ‘isim’,” she says. “Someone asked me the other day how I stay young. And I went, um, cut! Why is being young the be-all and end-all? I want to be vital. I want to be able. I want to be the best, most functioning, vital person I can be.”
Amen, sister. That’s a box I’d happily be in.
Happy reading.