Last night was the television premiere of the David Cronenberg film “A History of Violence.” There was mayhem, dark secrets exposed and plot twists galore, all penetratingly portrayed. But the image that I have been most unable to shake is this: Maria Bello, as a trailing-edge boomer mom of a taller-than-her teenaged son, donning her high school cheerleader’s outfit and making whoopee with hubby Viggo Mortensen—also a boomer—like rodeo champs.
The thing is: the darned thing fit. (The cheerleader’s outfit, that is.) I mean, I can buy that a great guy can have a violent streak, that people aren’t always who they appear to be, even that boomers can have great, athletic sex…but that anybody in her 40’s up who has had two children (there was a daughter, too) can still zip up that teeny tiny skirt: now, I know this is a Hollywood film.
I know, I know. You’re going to tell me that boomers are healthier, more fit and more vital than any other generation in history. (That’s actually my line…) But when it comes to aspirational imaging of boomers, I’m ready to say that our tastemakers have overshot the mark.
If I have to see one more advertisement featuring a 60-year-old woman parachuting from an airplane, driving a race car or shooting rapids down a river; one more model search looking for boomer moms and daughters who can still share the same pair of jeans; one more 50-year-old movie star without a line showing on her face, it will be one too many. I know that there are women at these and even older ages doing/being/having these things. Portraying the small percentage of women who are the exception rather than the rule, this is what marketers call aspirational. I’ve got another word for it: overachieving. Makes me tired just to think about it.
But, don’t we all still dream of these things? Is it my growing aversion to aspirational imaging that is, in fact, the exception rather than the rule? On Monday, I’ll tell you about a research study I did with Dr. Jimmy Smull of 100 well-educated, high performing leading edge boomer women, and what they, in truth, really aspire to. Hint: not one of their dreams required a crash helmet.
Carol Orsborn