The results of a US survey on ageing are unlikely to come as a surprise to anyone – it seems that men are less hung up about the passage of time than women.
The poll was carried out by Allure magazine and quizzed 2,000 American adults about how they feel about growing old. The overwhelming results showed that both sexes are concerned about ageing but almost 90% of those quizzed said it is women who face the most pressure to keep looking young.
Appearance is everything if the results of the survey are to be believed – on men, grey hair is distinguished; on women it makes them look old; men look sexier when they age; women are at their most attractive when they’re 30.
Women quizzed in the survey said their appearance was crucial to their career: 42% of those aged 50-59 said they had to stay young-looking to maintain success at work while only 20% of men in the same age bracket said the same. The survey also confirmed that both men and women believe gender is more likely to be at the root of workplace discrimination than age.
There were some positive findings from the survey. Around 60% of men and women said they thought their sex lives improved with age, while almost 70% of African-American women said they weren’t bothered at all by the signs of ageing.
The survey also quizzed people on what steps they would be persuaded to take to reverse the signs of ageing: 5% admitted to having had plastic surgery or injections such as Botox. And 42% of women and 18% of men said anti-ageing procedures were something they would consider having in the future. While cosmetic procedures have become increasingly popular and commonplace, there does appear to be some stigma still attached to admitting you have had something done as the survey showed when 1 in 3 of those who’d had a procedure said they’d kept it a secret.
The celebrities thought to have aged best by participants in the survey include George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Richard Gere, Meryl Streep, Jamie Lee Curtis and Julia Roberts.
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