Awkward Advice

I’m the proud owner of a goofy little pamphlet from 1964 called “How to Look and Feel Younger.” (Thank you, Goodwill.)

It’s a missive straight from patriarchy HQ, informing us not only that “Every woman … from the age of twenty-five on, would like to look younger,” (twenty-five!!!)—but also, “women should feel that way.”

There isn’t a paragraph that isn’t peppered with privilege and awkward advice—and it all comes down to this: A woman’s job is to please others, and to do that, she must look the way they want her to.

Anybody else ready to move on?