‘There’s beauty in age’
Cathi Rae, 59, lives in Leicester. She is a spoken word poet and PHD candidate and campaigner against ageism in fashion on Instagram @cathirae.
Posting pictures on social media is seen as a young person’s game. But I’m here to change that.
It was back during the lockdown of 2020 that I started taking a snap of my daily dog-walking outfit and posting it to Instagram. But I soon noticed there was a shortage of women that looked like me on the site - people who embraced their wrinkles and went filterfree - and I decided I wanted to show the world a real older woman’s body.
I wanted to celebrate what normal, ageing bodies looked like. To challenge the idea that ‘not looking your age’ was the highest compliment women could receive. To show that there’s beauty in age and acceptance. To prove there’s no such thing as age-appropriate fashion.
So I worked with some photographer friends, and I started posting pictures of my body, some clothed and others naked. I showed off my wrinkles, smaller breasts, softness where there used to be muscle, sagging skin - all the amazing things that have changed as I’ve got older and continue to change.
It was empowering. I actually liked my body the more and more I posted.
Unfortunately, I did start to receive unsolicited explicit messages from other users, and I’m now very upfront about policing my little corner of Instagram. I will block anyone who sends these types of messages.
But on the whole, I get mostly positive comments from other women who crave to see people like them, unfiltered and unapologetic, online. With 10,000 followers, my content is obviously hitting a cord with many women. The way I see it, getting to 60 is a privilege and I’m not going to hide away.
‘I’M NOT HIDING AWAY’