Women are looking and acting younger these days. In fact, you hear the phrase "50 is the new 40" meaning 50-year-old women are not the 50-year-olds you remember from your mother's day. 50-year-olds are looking younger, are healthier, and are more active than ever before. They may be enthralled in starting a new career or they may have toddlers at home, having just started their family in their 40s. So here's something to consider: "Why does the AARP start hounding you to join as soon as you turn 50?" Especially since most of their benefits seem to apply to people who really are retired and living on Medicare? I'm thinking this is giving 50 a bad name—at least, an unrealistic and negative image of the age.

In my observance about this age phenomenon, I've noticed another one: 30-year-old women are not what they used to be. Women? Come on. This age group calls themselves "girls." And they wear pink. And they seem to want nothing more out of life than to Mrs. Right. They seem more like what 20-year-olds used to be. Don't believe me? Have you caught any of the episodes of "The Bachelor"? The women are something out of a Doris Day movie of the late 50s/early60s, which I am also a fan of. And their genre of choice is chick lit or romantic comedy for those who are unaware of the genre started by "Bridget Jones' Diary." You know the ones with the pink covers. I also happen to enjoy chick lit—in fact, I write it. But my writing is geared more for the "oh no, I'm going to be turning 40 in a couple of years" or "I just turned 40—now where is my second chance?" set.

But this whole 60s, Doris Day retro movement—I still haven't figured out it if it's a good thing or a bad thing. What I am concerned most about is women losing their self-esteem in search of their identity through a ma

n—like a retro Barbie doll. Whatever happened to the ideals of their mothers, the women's movement of the late 60s? Have they totally thrown these hard fought for ideals away? Or have they just extracted the part they like best—like being open about having sex?

I'm also concerned about the younger girls, the real girls—the preschoolers who insist on dressing up like a Princess when they go to Disneyland or Disney World. I love Disney and these little girls are adorable dressed up in their Princess costumes, but I wonder what lessons the little girls are internalizing? Didn't we learn that we shouldn't emulate Cinderella and pin all of our hopes on Prince Charming?

Except for an occasional bout of nostalgia, like popularizing the 50s in the 70s, the 40s in the 80s, and the 60s today, our culture likes to turn a blind eye to the past. You know the famous aphorism, "Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it."

Since history does repeat itself, I suspect it'll all change again in the next generation. They'll all be rebels standing up for women's rights, dignity, and self-respect. I can only hope. And I can also hope they'll be more effective than the boomers were at making the effects longer-lasting.

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