Julianne Moore calls for “sexist” term to be scrapped
Actress Julianne Moore is questioning how women are viewed and talked about as they age, calling for one particular term to be dropped completely.
Moore, who turned 60 in December, criticised those who use the phrase “ageing gracefully” in the latest issue of As If magazine, according to People.
he described the term, especially when used while speaking about women, as “totally sexist”.
“There’s so much judgement inherent in the term ‘ageing gracefully’,” Moore told the publication.
“Is there an ungraceful way to age? We don’t have an option of course. No one has an option about ageing, so it’s not a positive or negative thing, it just is,” she said.
Moore questioned the perception that women in particular had some kind of influence over, so they could opt in or out of doing it “gracefully”.
“It’s part of the human condition, so why are we always talking about it as if it is something that we have control over?” she asked.
Stressing the value of “inner growth”, Moore argued that people should be more concerned with how they continue to evolve as they age instead.
“We are given a narrative as children that we keep growing through school, maybe go to college then, after school is finished, the idea of growth is done … But we have all this life left to live,” she said.
“How do we continue to challenge ourselves, to interest ourselves, learn new things, be more helpful to other people, be the person that your friends and family need or want? How do we continue to evolve? How do we navigate life to have even deeper experiences?”
Moore also endorsed a comment Helen Mirren made last year during an interview for O, The Oprah Magazine, where she hit back against the phrase “anti-ageing”.
“Ageing is a requirement of life: You either grow old or die young,” Mirren said during the interview.
“I take great issue with the term, actually. You can’t avoid ageing. The way I see it, you have two choices in life: You can either get older, or die,” the 75-year-old said at the time.
“And I want to continue to see what life has in store. I think about Kurt Cobain and all that he missed. I mean, how sad is it that he never knew about GPS.”
Image: Julianne Moore / Instagram