(For women): Do you feel like you've become invisible?

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t bother me at all. I am an introvert and would rather go about my business uninterrupted. DH and my kids give me plenty of attention.

[Anonymous]

I'll be 60 sooner than I care to think about, but I was never that girl who got the hoots from truckers or construction workers. The attention I did get back then, and the attention I get nowadays, are very different. Today, random young men in a public setting give me sweet smiles, and insist on carrying my packages for me. They see me as a mama figure. That's perfectly okay with me. In the not too distant future they'll see me as a grandma figure and that's also perfectly okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t bother me at all. I am an introvert and would rather go about my business uninterrupted. DH and my kids give me plenty of attention.

+1 I was very attractive when I was young, but I got married young, so I found male attention annoying & even frightening at times. Now that I am older, I love that young men relate to me as the "mama" type. Luckily, DH says he still sees me as beautiful.

Now it is DD turn. Love it when my beautiful DD gets flirted with and doors are held for her.

[Anonymous]

Most women I know don’t let their looks determine their self worth.

[Anonymous]

I was always considered a shapely and attractive black woman. Now, I am 49, I still get attention but not as much as I did when I was 10 or 20 years younger.

I am OK with it because my DH still calls me sexy and has the hots for me.

[Anonymous]

I smiled at a women who was about 70 the other day so ladies, you are not ignored!

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

I can't relate to OP's post at all. I was never all that attractive when I was young - or maybe it's not that so much as I was what people call genderqueer these days - on the butch side for a heterosexual. I'm having a great time in my 60s but I don't feel invisible to men because I never got that much attention from them to begin with. (And I don't miss street harassment for sure!)

It does help that I work at a female-dominated company and that dh and I really love each other. Not in a hot way anymore (suffice it to say, my plumbing doesn't work very well these days) but in an "I've got your back no matter what" way. I love being in my 60s. There is so much that I just don't give a damn about anymore. It's sooooo liberating!

I wish I could tell that to awkward, nonconforming teenaged girls everywhere. Hang in there, young women, it can get better. It definitely got better for me!

[Anonymous]

I have found I'm not invisible and I think it's counter-intuitive: I let my hair go salt and pepper. it's a little past shoulder length.

I think it's because when one is trying to look younger by dying hair, it doesn't really work so one looks sort of younger-but-unhealthy. But if one looks older and healthy, it still attracts attention.

I think, though, with the gray hair, it's best to keep it on the longer side, or to wear a little makeup, or something nicer than a boxy t-shirt. I think this because there are two types of gray haired women--the kind like me who are intentionally gray, and the kind that are gray as part of a larger situation of "I don't care about how I look" and you don't want to be mistaken for being in the latter camp.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I'm 60 and I am there. No one really gives a crap if you are here or not. But, my husband still loves me, my dogs still love me, and my kids do, but they don't need me anymore.
You will be ignored at work, in shops, in your neighborhood, pretty much everywhere. Oh yeah, your health concerns step up a bit, but unlike at 35 or even 45, these are EXPECTED, so, no whining, right?

[Anonymous]

Wait until you are 70. You will long for these days.

[Anonymous]

In my early 40s and a SAHM, and have already noticed a difference. I was raised to focus on my smarts and personality and never really expected to be interesting to the opposite sex, not for my looks...after college I started to notice that men noticed me and it was really nice!
Now I've noticed this has changed, mostly, except for a few times here and there, and when that happens, it feels great and it makes me feel more attractive when I'm with my DH. But 80% of the time I'd say I'm invisible already.

[Anonymous]

in fifties and i get nothing from opposite sex. i am invisible. women don't talk to me. frustrating.

[Anonymous]

I’m in my early 30s and I already no longer feel like random men on the street sexualize me anymore. Thank God! No longer getting harassed, complimented, hit on, chatted up, groped, all of it is equally great to me.