This ad says it all, as I watch it I get tense with all the images flashing of the things that women are “supposed” to be or “supposed” to look like. It is frightening. I started this forum so that that we can talk about how things like this make us feel and how they effect us both consciously and subconsciously and as I take this ad in I realize that – as “aware” as I am or like to think I am, I am so greatly effected by the World’s standard of beauty. I so stress about how I look, I worry when my pants get tight even though I might look fine. I remember that when I was in my teens I always wanted grey hair, I thought that it was so beautiful, and elegant, those women, (Jazz singer Nancy Wilson comes to mind) with those beautiful manes of salt and pepper mix…Well now that I am sprouting my wisdom, I can’t reach for a bottle of black dye fast enough. What happened to that idea of beauty I once held? Perhaps it’s just easier when the concept of aging is so far ahead of you that it seems unlikely. I don’t know but, we must begin to talk to our daughters, but first me must take council with ourselves.