Woman Should Look Her Age!

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 140, 3 September 1927, Page 24

Woman Should Look Her Age!

Sir William Orpen Condemns Cosmetics and Dismisses the Theories of Miss Fannie Ward

T-V this arresting article Sir William Orpen, whose portraits have long been celebrated, both for their technical mastery and their insight into the personality of his sitters, replies to the article by Miss Fannie Ward, the famous actress, which appeared in "The Daily Mail ” on July 6. In her article Miss Ward, who is 60 years of age, but has kept the face and figure of a girl, maintained that women ought to keep perennially young in their habits and appearance. Sir William Orpen, however, while giving high praise to the girl of to-day, argues that old age which does not seek to disguise itself is both harmonious and. beautiful. He will doubtless arouse controversy by his remark that women realise that "man, not woman, sets the standard of human beauty.”

r■■■ a| there is nothing more beautiful or gracious than old age at its best, wBlb! lam a^ 1 stoutly disnie Ward’s generalisation that women are more beautiful than they were 20 or 40 years ago, because they all try to look and dress like a girl of 18. The young girl of to-day, particularly the English girl, is a splendid creature. She is a totally different animal from the girl of 40 years ago, almost double the size in bone, though much leaner. She could not get into a dress made to fit the normal woman of 1880. During the last 40 years we have 'witnessed one of the most astonishing and one of the swiftest evolutionaly changes in the history of mankind. It lias been brought about by the unconscious self-will of women, who desired to change themselves, and who have done so. They have realised that man, not woman, sets the standard of human beauty, and by desiring to eonform to that standard have succeeded in making themselves more like men —bigger, straignter, flatter, freer in the limb, stronger. It is the biggest tribute one sex has ever paid

to another. The modern girl is certainly beautiful, not cnly because her lines are better and her carriage more swinging. The body is governed by the mind, and the semi-nudity of modern dress has made woman think more about her body, and by thinking about it she has improved it. Her legs are visible; she wishes them to be well shaped, and so they usually are. I have observed the most astonishing improvement in the shape of a pair of legs when their owner took to shorter and shorter skirts. I agree ■with Miss Ward that the girl of to-day is often more lovely than was her mother as a girl, though I would sooner paint the dresses of 1880 than I w*ould those of 1927. But it makes one weep to see these fine young creatures smothering their perfect skins with paint, distorting their mouths with lipstick. And how can we help asking ourselves whether the tremendous passion for physical exercise is really going to do women any good, whether the new type of champion law*n tennis player is going to make a good mother? I know, years ago, it was said that the hard hunting girl seldom bred up many children, and it is certainly possible that the hardening of the bodily muscles in women who take up the more

strenuous forms of sport renders them less fit for motherhood. But where I disagree profoundly -with Miss Fannie Ward is not as regards the modern girl, but as regards the modern matron. Xo doubt our standards of beauty differ, but for myself I must confess that I have never seen a woman who did not look her age. When we meet one of those elderly nymphs Miss Ward describes, one who apes the appearance of her own grand-daughter, we often suspect that her complexion is not her own, that her hair is dyed, that she is anything but fit, that her imitation of youthful gaiety is forced. And in her face there almost always lurks a bitter shade of discontent, sometimes of ill-nature, for a grandmother who apes girlhood has lost all the rewards to which her years entitle her, has thrown away peace, robbed herself of the entry to that .gracious kingdom of the old where by rights she should reign. To my eyes, such a woman is not beautiful any more than would be an old man of ‘>o who tried to look and behave and feel like a boy of 16. And he would be a repulsive spectacle indeed. A mature woman is beautiful in my eyes only if she expresses the state of mind peculiar to her age. Character and personality form the expression and mould the body. It is much more fitting that a woman of 60 should look her age, should feel her age, and should behave in keeping. Life should be lived so that we gain, and not lose, as the years pass. A woman who has seen much of life has learned much. the has also—and this is where her beauty lies —wisI dom and content marked in every j feature, and wears clothes that make ! a perfect setting for a fine soul. 1 The matron who tries to defeat time, the grandmother who hopes to be mistaken for a debutante, have fallen into the popular fallacy which regards beauty as something external, whereas it lies not in exteriors but in the soul of any beautiful object, be it a woman or a tree. As the mind within changes, so should the body. There can be no beauty without harmony, and it is the saddest thing to see our inharmonious grandmothers of to-day, who, far from being beautiful when they try to enjoy youth, with an old heart, are utterly

incongruous and rather pathetic. It would be far better if the modern woman could learn how to grow old than that she should be given any further instruction in snatching at mock-youth when the time of youth is over. For, by clinging desperately to youth in her middle age, she is forfeiting what she should cherish and look forward to most of all—the beauty and the grace of age.