76-Year-Old Woman Harshly Criticized For Her Outfit — By Other Older Women
How dare she show her arms as a woman in her 70s.
Olena Yakobchuk / Shutterstock.com Aging as a woman can feel impossible. Sometimes it feels as though our worth declines as our age rises. It definitely doesn't help that older women are rarely represented in mainstream media.
Thankfully, representation for beautiful and stylish older ladies can be found on social media. Life in My 70s — a blog and social media brand run by Candace Lelie Cima — has been receiving attention for her style and makeup hacks on mature skin. Since the beginning of 2020, Cima’s page has blown up, now with 166,000 followers on Instagram and over a hundred thousand followers on TikTok.
Cima started her account because, at the time, she didn’t see any influencers who were her age. As a child, "I didn't understand the negativity associated with aging,” she shared in a video. “And actually, I’m old now and I still don’t.”
However, not everyone shares her positive attitude.
The 76-year-old has recently received a lot of criticism and body shaming due to her age.
One of Cima’s most viewed posts is a video of her trying on a dress from Amazon, as she often does. With almost 700,000 views, she could have never imagined the response she would get from it, especially on her Facebook page.
The comments section was filled with disrespectful and hateful words.
"Not flattering at all. Would never wear alone. Too old to be showing all that skin," one user commented.
"Too old to have your arms showing," another wrote.
“I think you’re a little too mature for that dress," a third user commented. "You are thin and look nice but you shouldn’t expose your arms and your shoulders."
Even women around Cima’s own age were giving her a rough time, commenting on her body and skin, claiming that she should not be wearing a dress that is fitted and “for young people.”
Thankfully Cima doesn't seem to be letting the haters get to her, as the criticism did not stop her from posting her regular content on her daily schedule.
Cima's video caught the attention of another influencer who was sad to see the 'grandma on grandma violence.'
Maggie Anders (@LibertyAnders), a content creator with her own show on YouTube, tweeted about Cima’s comment section and the criticism she was getting about her body. With the post having over 13 million views, it brought awareness to Cima’s situation and promptly spread positivity in the comments.
“The grandma on grandma violence on Facebook is real,” Anders wrote, “This woman looks incredible in her 70s and all of the comments are older women tearing her apart for her body and outfit.”
Pushing out the hurtful comments, people swiftly wrote positive messages instead.
“Came here from Twitter — YOU LOOK STUNNING!” one person commented.
“Makes me so sad to see that many women don’t age out of being so nasty and bitter to other women," another user wrote. "You look AMAZING and don’t let these jealous people let you think otherwise!”
Later on, Cima became active in the comments section, thanking everyone who was spreading positivity and supporting her through the tough journey.
Sadly, this is not the only time women have been attacked for the natural biological act of aging.
According to Psychology Today, women attack others if they “fear, envy, jealousy, suspicion, resentment, rage, anxiety, or lack of self-esteem and confidence.” Likely these women would not be confident enough to wear a sleeveless dress themselves, so they tear down women like Cima who are. This isn't all that surprising, considering women have been socialized from a young age to see aging as shameful.
In our society, it often seems like women aren't allowed to age — or at least show signs of it. So many women inject Botox, cover their grays and invest in anti-aging skincare, in order to "age gracefully." While these are valid choices — and no woman should be shamed for doing what makes her feel confident — no one should feel like they have to hide (or dress) their age either.
Lauren Reams is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news.