No joking matter

Well, it's not a mid-life crisis, but here's how things worked out for me. Married 25 years, took a look at my wife one day and said, "Honey, 25 years ago, we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10 inch black and white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 25 year old blond. Now, we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 50 year old woman. It seems to me that you are not holding up your side of things."

My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot 25 year old blond, and she would make sure that I would once again be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed....

By Terri from NV, found on ThriftyFun.com
This is supposed to be a joke, but from my female perspective it represents an affront and a blow to my self-esteem. This kind of thinking is what perpetuates the problems with self-image faced by women as they age, causing many of them to resort to plastic surgery to try to look like younger women so that men will still desire them. Damn!

I have a very hard time coping with the knowledge that most men, given the choice between a woman my age and a hot,young blonde, will pass me by in a flash. My own husband, who wants so much to believe that he does not think this way, still occasionally makes unguarded comments that reveal his true thoughts. Not long ago, while watching a movie on television, we were repeatedly exposed to a late-night commercial for telephone "friends"--a commercial showing a seductively dressed and provocatively acting young blonde encouraging the viewer to call. I was annoyed, but kept quiet on the subject, trying to ignore my own feelings of inadequacy. I couldn't help noticing my husband's obvious interest and agitation whenever this particular commercial would come on. He always had to make a remark. What hurt the most was when he said that people would call thinking that they would reach someone like her, when they would really be talking to a fat, middle-aged housewife somewhere. Stung, I asked him what is wrong with a fat, middle-aged housewife--which is exactly what I am!--and he backpedaled furiously, vehemently denying that he said anything derogatory about women like me. Yeah, right. It still hurts. A lot.