Last Thursday morning, while happily drinking my coffee and watching the morning news, I was shocked to learn that, according to CNN host Don Lemon, I may as well be dead. To be clear, Lemon was not imparting his opinion about me specifically but about 51-year-old former Congresswoman Nikki Haley, who recently announced her candidacy for U.S. president. In the conversation on CNN on Thursday, Feb. 16, Lemon stated that Haley is past her prime as a woman at age 51.
Hold up, Don. This hits a little too close to home for me. I’m not considering running for president, but I am a fifty-year-old woman.
Lemon's co-anchors, both women themselves, reacted to his comments with surprise, and one seemed worried he was digging himself a hole. She threw him a lifeline by asking him to clarify what he meant by "prime." Instead of the rope, Lemon grabbed a metaphoric shovel and continued digging, saying, "A quick Google search would reveal that a woman's prime is in only her 20s, 30s, and 40s."
You know what they say, women. Once you stop menstruating, what good are you?
Though offended, I didn’t immediately dismiss Lemons' opinion. I reasoned that as one of America’s most respected journalists, winner of the Edward R. Murrow award, and a fifty-six-year-old man, Lemon's background screams post-menopausal expert.
What if he knows what he’s talking about? What if my best years are behind me? What if I am now as obsolete as Blockbuster?
According to Lemon, there was only one sure way to confirm if my irrelevance was imminent. “If you don’t believe me, Google it,” he advised his audience.
This seemed reasonable. Everyone today knows Google is the ultimate source of infallible Gandhi-like wisdom. Whenever I wrestle with important questions about the mysteries of life, I turn to Google.
Hey, Google, where’s Waldo?
Hey, Google, what would you do for a Klondike bar?
Hey, Google, which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Hey Google, were Ross and Rachel on a break?
Hey, Google, where would you bury an arrogant past-his-prime reporter's body? Too far?
Taking Lemon's own advice, I dragged what I now felt was my subpar, frumpy, more-ancient-than-the-pyramids body in front of my computer. Somehow, with apparently only half my elderly brain working, I remembered how to spell the word Google and searched with trepidation the dreaded words: “women over forty.”
It wasn’t long until the computer generated a very extensive list. As I began to read, I realized the list was not an inventory of all the ways I had become lesser than; it was instead a lengthy, encouraging catalog of incredible women who achieved their principal accomplishments later in life.
As I scrolled, I was amazed at the hundreds of women over forty who changed the world. Some of my favorites were:
Harriet Tubman – She led hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad after the age of 41.
Julia Child – She published her first cookbook at age 50.
Laura Ingalls Wilder – She published her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, at age 65.
Grandma Moses – She began painting when she was 78 years old.
Vera Wang – She didn't begin designing wedding dresses until she was 40.
Toni Morrison – She published her first novel, The Bluest Eye, at age 39.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer – She began her career as a sex therapist in her 50s.
Sandra Day O'Connor – She became the first female Supreme Court justice serving from the age of 51 to 75.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg – She served on the supreme court from age 60 until she passed away at 87.
Margaret Thatcher – She was prime minister of England from ages 53 to 74.
Rosa Parks – She was 42 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus, igniting the civil rights movement.
Mother Teresa – She changed the world one soul at a time until her death at 87.
According to Don Lemon, these women were inconsequential. They were one-offs in a world focused on youth and beauty. But imagine if these women believed their worth and relevance sharply decreased with age. How different might our world be today? Thank God no one told them they were past their prime. Or, more importantly, if someone did thank God, they didn’t believe it.
Should Lemon be canceled for his arrogant, ignorant, and sexist comments?
I say no. I am reminded of what my wise, still-in-her-prime seventy-five-year-old mother once taught me: “The best cure for objectionable opinions is to allow people to air them. Don’t take away their shovels; with enough time and enough digging, people will usually bury themselves.”
Edited by Rebekah Crozier
contact info: Avery282@gmail.com