Good for Esther Rantzen

I agree with Mishap things like botox seems to make people look dreadful, they rarely look natural.
A decent "nose job" for some I can understand, but it seems that messing about with skin tissue itself does not always give an improvement. If your skin is saggy due to your genes, smoking, too much sun etc, it is surely due to problems with the quality of the tissue itself and really that is not likely to improve.

Quite apart from the fact that the media etc should not be so critical of personal appearance and that woman age. Older men do not get all this pressures and criticism.

I totally agree with the sentiment Mishap- well done Esther.

'Letting oneself go' is such a horrible expression and yes, so judgemental I feel too. A big difference though between not caring for oneself, as in washing, having clean well kept clothes and nails, etc- and not putting make-up and being dressed to kill. I'm afraid many of us just do not have the energy to be perfect.... and if I had to choose between letting my mind and attitudes 'go' or my looks- I'll choose the latter (well, I have ;) )

MY OP was not intended to be judgmental sue - it was just nice to see Esther being and looking as she wanted to be without feeling she had to look how the media seem to want.

Cherie can't do right for doing wrong - whatever that may mean! She used to be pilloried for taking a hairdresser with her when she went off on a visit with Tony, and now she's being criticised for her lack of grooming. Does it matter?

How judgemental this thread is.

I think people should look how they ant to look in whatever situation - why should she tart herself up if she is happy looking as she is?

My point was that if I was making a speech that I knew would be on TV and had oodles of money I would have paid somebody to take a good look at me and give me a going over so I did not look too bad. No need for botox, surgery or even that awful fake tan, just common sense like a hairdo, lipstick and clothes that fit and flatter.

I expect most of us ordinary mortals wash, brush our hair and throw on something comfy most days...

I haven't been near a hair salon for over 20 years , not interested in make up or painted nails , hate shopping for clothes etc so I am the opposite of Ranzen, seems I have let myself go if she is the standard women should set forthemselves

I prefer to see people who looked natural, ie, no surgery or botox, however in a youth obsessed world, it can be especially hard on female presenters, actresses and celebs of all kinds to constantly look good.I find myself surprised to see how actors etc often look when interviewed , probably because the last time I saw them in a film was maybe 10/15 years ago, and we forget that they age! I think sometimes that we conveniently forget that we age too.

Letting oneself go us worthy of it's own thread. I suppose it's on a continuum where the extreme is never washing yourself, changing your clothes or caring about your health.

I've heard people say 'well does it matter what she looks like, she's 90 now?' when talking about an elderly relative. But the point was she cared . It was nobody else's business but her own.

Just what is letting one's self go? Who sets this standard below which no woman must fall?

I meant that Esther still dresses well and looks slim and well kempt when appearing on TV. Cherie was on the news for making a public appearance somewhere, she has put on weight and was wearing a tight dress which did her no favours and obviously had no time to visit a hairdresser.

Yes indeed, ffnochio, and seeds burst out in the springtime, so there is always hope! Many a good tune, they say...

I too hate being talked down to, although I must admit it does not happen that often, except at our local library where we have a very nice assistant, who insists on talking to me in a baby voice, about where to scan my card, and how to put the money in the machine. I can read! (that's why I go to the library) and I can understand and act on simple instructions - I can even manage the complicated ones!

Seeds, * papaoscar* can be very interesting and beautiful, particularly when cover in a hoarfrost early morning.

Cherie Blair - a very clever woman not overdrawn at the Bank of Beauty and married to a now very unpopular man who was Prime Minister for a time. I saw a picture of her the other day and immediately thought of the expression 'gone to seed'. Then I looked in the mirror myself. They don't lie, do they?

Phoenix

It says on Wiki that she was born in June 1940.

She's 74.

How old is she?

Mishap! Esther Rantzen is only five months older than I am - so I suppose I am old as well.

Tegan you've just voiced my mother's pet hate; that of being spoken to as if she was an 'old lady', it riles her more than anything else. Except perhaps the time when a kindly man urged her to go to the front of the queue when she was in the post office; the poor man got such a dressing down! After all, my mother isn't old - she's only eighty five!

Worryingly three times this weekend people have spoken to me in a 'speaking to an old person' way. This has never happened to me before and it's shocked me a bit. What's even more worrying is that I can only remember two example of the three . Although it doesn't worry me when I ask for my pensioners discount and it goes unchallenged .

She never wears red you know, just in case someone tries to post a letter.....

Where di you see Cherie Blair? Pittcity I dislike the woman so much I'd like to see her looking awful.

Though, actually, I agree with Ffin and I'd like to know whether I qualify as looking my age or letting myself go?