Jess, I love that women over 40 are dominating on magazines covers and, even better, in the movie theater. I noticed it too—and I also noticed Laura Linney (46) on the cover of last week’s New York Times Magazine, that More magazine’s circulation is increasing (cover girls have to be over 40; this month’s Kyra Sedgwick is 44), and that the inside of Elle magazine, not just the cover, offers articles clearly aimed at women past the ingenue stage: recovering from the death of your mother, wrinkle-fighting secrets. It looks to me like grown-ups are creeping slowly back into vogue (and, literally, back into Vogue), and I agree: It’s not just the recession (although the fact that more of us still have jobs and some disposable income, as opposed to struggling recent grads, can’t hurt). Maybe it’s another benefit of Mad Men, or maybe we’re just tired of watching Lindsey Lohan crash and burn again and again.
Read the rest on Slate’s XXFactor. It all goes back to that piece off to the side of the NYT’s Styles section about a woman who’s decided that other women in their late thirties and early forties would enjoy being dubbed with a new age group nick name: “Formerlies.” As in, formerly hot. No thanks! Even as self mockery, I don’t much like that one. Think I’ll stick with MILF.