Week Nine EOC - For Those Who Think Young

America has always been a youth obsessed culture.  The idea of getting older, being bedridden, and forced to live in a retirement home has never appealed to anyone in our society.  In fact, we loathe the idea so much that we do in fact put our parents, who raised and cared for us, in retirement homes for nurses to take care of rather than ourselves.  There are cultures in the world, mainly in Asia, where we are looked upon with loathsome eyes for doing such a thing, in their society elders are respected and often live at home with their families until the day they pass.  As we grow older we drastically change our eating habits, constantly sweat away at the gym, and even take injections and vitamin supplements all in the hope of retaining our youthful demeanor.  Older employees at firms are usually looked upon with pity and let go before their younger peers if job cuts need to be made, usually forced into early retirement or just let go.  But why have we been obsessed with youth?  Why do we allow it to run our country and our lives?  

The striving for youth is not a new phenomenon.  In fact "In 1,500 B.C. people were ingesting tiger gonads to rejuvenate them," says Dr. Gene Cohen, a George Washington University expert on aging. (USA Today)  We are constantly searching for a way to prove that we are healthier and more vital than our parents were at our age.  50 has become the new 60 and then 40 became the new 50 just as quickly as the 4 (dress size) became the new 6 and then 2 became the new 4.  Our society has constantly been bombarded with ideals of beauty and health for ages and in the current age of magazines and internet it has been happening more constantly than for other generations.  But at what cost to our health are we striving to stay young?  Is all this plastic surgery and injections and dieting really helping us?

Do not misunderstand me, I will get botox injections tomorrow if I see a wrinkle on my forehead.  I plan on having plastic surgery at some point in my life and would love to have jaw implants now.  I, as a young, affluent, gay male in our society have been completely consumed by the idea of youth as beauty.  Particularly in the gay community, where at 22 I might as well be 55, these impossible beauty ideals thrive and spread into all areas of one’s professional and personal life, and eventually to those around them.