..Have you heard about the world’s oldest lingerie model?
It sounds like the first line of a joke. But it’s not. It’s the story of 83 year old model, Dorrie Jacobson, a gutsy former Playboy Bunny who has recently begun modelling lingerie. Dorrie now describes herself as “the world’s oldest lingerie model.”
She has an Instagram page and has told the world about being the world’ oldest lingerie model in a video interview which has gone viral.
83 year old model Dorrie lives in Nevada. She has a great attitude to ageing which is why she is being held up as a role-model and “an influencer.” It is why, TBH, we are talking about her on SoSensational.
Why Dorrie has become a model
In the video, she says she decided to become a lingerie model in her 80s to “inspire women” and show them that a woman in her 80s can “still be sexy.”
That is certainly true – just look at Jane Fonda as just one celebrity example. We feel sure there are lots of sexy non-celebrity 80-somethings. And perhaps Dorrie saying out loud that “a woman in her 80s can still be sexy” may help combat the vestigial ageism that remains so prevalent. (Indeed, it’s one of the last “isms” to be acceptable).
Yes, we know ageism has largely been eradicated in the workplace thanks to legislation. But socially, not so much… think of all the snide comments about “Radio 4 Listeners” (code for oldies). It would also be good to lose the “yuch” factor if the words “sexy” and “mature woman” appear in the same sentence. Also to stop treating anyone over 60 as if their opinion no longer counts.
In the video interview, Dorrie also states that: “Age is not a number, it’s an attitude.” And while we love her attitude and we understand the underlying sentiment, we have to say this: while we agree that our attitude to ageing defines how we think of ourselves, the reality is age truly is about how many years we have been on the planet. So we could agree with this: “How you age is not about number, but about an attitude.” But we also recognise that that’s not as punchy!
Why we agree…
Because SoSensational is all about fashion for mature women, we strongly believe that how we present ourselves to the world (i.e. what clothes we wear ) plays a key role in defining not only how we look and therefore how we think of ourselves but also how we are perceived by others.
And this is where Dorrie’s insight and wisdom are very valuable. She comments: “I think there should be more people in their 70s, 80s and 90s out there showing how ageing can actually look.”
She says we are “very different from how our grandmothers were,” pointing out that we are not “sitting in a rocking chair… We are running businesses, running marathons, online dating and having sex.”
When asked if she is happy to be growing old, she says: “Hell, no, I’m not happy to be growing old.”
She has some advice. “Just because you retire from your job doesn’t mean you have to retire from life. ” We should “try something new,” she says. “It’s going to end, but you can still have a good time before that.”
She also has some fashion advice. She says: “Stop being age-appropriate in the way you dress…throw away the rule book; take risks.”
Our thoughts…
While we admire her gutsiness, we don’t wholly agree. We worry that her advice could easily be misinterpreted making us all look like badly-dressed old ladies when we’d far rather look like Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley Goldie Hawn, or even like Dorrie Jacobson herself.
Because while urging us to throw away the rule book and reject being age-appropriate, 83 year old model Dorrie looks elegant and polished. We think you only achieve that by being age-appropriate, following some rules and breaking the right rules.
If she is saying that we don’t need to conform to an out-dated, outmoded set of rules, that tells women over 50 they should only dress in shapeless clothes in black, we wholeheartedly agree.
Like her, we think the right clothes, the right hair-style and the right make-up (especially when well-applied), are all important. That is one reason why we have a series of Celebrity Style Steals, so we can all learn some clever tricks from celebrities over 50 and 60…
Dorrie, if you are saying that we don’t need to conform to an out-dated, outmoded set of rules that says we have to fade to grey after 50, well we couldn’t agree more.
What do you think: is age just an attitude? is how we dress important? is society ageist? Tell us what you think below…
[su_button url=”https://www.sosensational.co.uk/blog/” target=”blank” background=”#6c20b1″ size=”7″ center=”yes” radius=”0″ icon=”icon: arrow-right”]Read more blogs like this[/su_button]
2 Comments
What an inspiration! More, please 🙂
We totally agree! She’s got it – and flaunting it – and a great inspiration! Many thanks for commenting.