1. Beauvoir, Old Age, 604.
2. Beauvoir, Old Age, 315.
3. Beauvoir, All Said and Done, 463; Beauvoir, Old Age, 8.
4. Beauvoir, Old Age, 319.
5. Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance II, 378.
6. Beauvoir, Old Age, 323–24.
7. Beauvoir, Old Age, 324. Beauvoir’s emphasis.
8. Beauvoir, Old Age, 320.
9. Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance II, 377–78; Schwarzer, After The Second Sex, 83.
10. Beauvoir, Old Age, 244.
11. In Romania, around 93 percent of grandmothers provide some care for grandchildren. In the US, UK, China, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Hungary, and other countries, over 50 percent provide care (Janta, Barbara. Caring for Children in Europe. European Union: RAND Europe, 2014: 11. Accessed Sep 4, 2021. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR500/RR554/RAND_RR554.pdf); Ko, Pei-Chun, and Karsten Hank. “Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren in China and Korea.” The Journals of Gerontology 69.4 (2014): 646–51. Accessed Sep 4, 2021. https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/69/4/646/616809; Chamie, Joseph. “Increasingly Indispensable Grandparents.” YaleGlobal Online Sep 4, 2018. Accessed Sep 4, 2021. https://archive-yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/increasingly-indispensable-grandparents.
12. Beauvoir, Old Age, 13.
13. Beauvoir, Old Age, 415.
14. Beauvoir, Old Age, 465. There is research that backs this up: a study of British voting choices between 1964 to 2010 found a correlation between growing older and voting conservatively, that is, for parties that uphold the status quo. Tilley, James, and Geoffrey Evans. “Ageing and Generational Effects on Vote Choice.” Electoral Studies 33 (2014): 19–27. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379413000875.
15. Beauvoir, Old Age, 425.
16. There is some empirical evidence to support the notion that the subjective perception of time speeds up as people age, although it is unclear as to whether this is caused by biological aging or shaped by cultural and social factors. Wittmann, Marc, and Sandra Lehnhoff. “Age Effects in Perception of Time.” Psychological Reports 97.3 (2005): 921–935. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.97.3.921–935.
17. Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance II, 1.
18. Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance II, 7.
19. Beauvoir, All Said and Done, 34.
20. Beauvoir, Old Age, 409.
21. Beauvoir, Old Age, 103, 124, 134.
22. Beauvoir, Old Age, 104; Ptah-hotep. The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep. 2414–2375 BCE. Trans. Gunn, Battiscombe. London: John Murray, 1912: 41.
23. Beauvoir, Old Age, 112, 136.
24. Beauvoir, Old Age, 309.
25. Franck, Thomas. “Human Lifespan Could Soon Pass 100 Years Thanks to Medical Tech, Says BofA.” CNBC 2019. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/techs-next-big-disruption-could-be-delaying-death.html.
26. Beauvoir, Old Age, 604.
27. Beauvoir, Simone de. “Observer Picture Archive: My Clothes and I, 20 March 1960 with Cynthia Judah.” Ed. Whitmore, Greg: The Guardian, 2019. Accessed Jul 30, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2019/mar/17/observer-archive-my-clothes-and-i-by-simone-de-beauvoir-20-march-1960.
28. As of 2016, the plastic surgery market was worth over $16 billion annually in America. “More Than $16 Billion Spent on Cosmetic Plastic Surgery.” American Society of Plastic Surgeons, April 12, 2017. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/press-releases/more-than-16-billion-spent-on-cosmetic-plastic-surgery.
29. It is still a common trope that men age like wine but women have an expiration date. In a 2016 comedy skit called “Last F**kable Day,” Amy Schumer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, and Patricia Arquette picnic by a river in idyllic California woods. They are celebrating Louis-Dreyfus reaching an age where she will be put out to Hollywood pasture. Louis-Dreyfus explains that now that she is a middle-aged woman the media will stop portraying her as a desirable and sexual being. She means that she will never again be offered roles in which she will be a love interest, but rather asexual roles in films with titles such as Whatever It Takes or She Means Well. “Last F**kable Day (ft. Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette).” Inside Amy Schumer. Comedy Central, 2015. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpsI8mWKmg.
30. Beauvoir, Force of Circumstance II, 378.
31. Spar, Debora L. “Aging and My Beauty Dilemma.” The New York Times, Sep 25, 2016. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/fashion/aging-plastic-surgery-feminism.html.
32. I adore the bravery of actor Justine Bateman, who is normalizing women’s aging and exposing sexist implications of the notion that men’s aging implies more power and women’s aging implies less power. Not being dubbed as young and pretty is, Bateman wrote, a “pernicious distraction that has permeated seemingly every female fiber,” and, “It felt like a ploy to somehow shut me down, to get me to hide, to be quiet, to erase myself, all at the exact moment in my life when I had gained the most intelligence, the most wisdom, and the most confidence. What an easy way to try to make sure that I stopped accomplishing anything further.” (Bateman, Justine. Face. New York: Akashic Books, 2021.)
33. This is not only an American phenomenon. Breast augmentation, liposuction, and tummy tucks are popular in Brazil, for example, and eyelid surgeries are in demand in Japan. “ISAPS International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures Performed in 2017.” International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2019. Accessed Nov 1, 2020. https://www.isaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ISAPS_2017_International_Study_Cosmetic_Procedures_NEW.pdf
34. Nussbaum, Aging Thoughtfully, 20–21, 120.
35. Beauvoir, Old Age, 323.
36. Beauvoir, Old Age, 330.
37. Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 619, 625.
38. Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 619.
39. Beauvoir, Old Age, 542.
40. “A Translation of Sappho’s ‘Old Age Poem’ by J. Simon Harris.” The Society of Classical Poets, Jul 6, 2018. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://classicalpoets.org/2018/07/06/a-translation-of-sapphos-old-age-poem-by-j-simon-harris/.
41. Beauvoir, Old Age, 601.
42. Nussbaum, Aging Thoughtfully, 196, 207.
43. Beauvoir, After The Second Sex, 89.
44. Beauvoir, Adieux, 188.
45. Beauvoir, Old Age, 547.