Super-BLOOMING Woman: Paula Deen

Late BLOOMERS are all the rage. How about the over-40 women you see on the screen: Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone─these empowered, confident women are great models of success, tenacity, and re-invention. Modeling agencies report that there is more demand for beautiful women over 40, and over 50, to help marketers sell to us boomers.  Everyone from cosmetics companies to car makers is courting us.  Some of the most popular women on TV are over 50, and certainly many of them are late BLOOMERS.

One of the most popular is Paula Deen. This well-known Southern cook suffered so badly from agoraphobia in her 20s that she wouldn’t even leave her house.  Today, no one would believe that about this brassy, loud, fun and totally BLOOMING broad!  She’s written 5 books, owns a restaurant in Savannah, has her own line of signature pies at Wal-Mart (but, of course, “Y’ALL!”), and hosts several shows on the Food Network. Her brazen, butter-everywhere, innuendo-infused (“Now, beat your meat, Y’ALL!”) commentary may not be for everyone, but her fans adore her. As a businesswoman who recognizes a shrewd mogul when I see one, I love that she has parlayed that platinum-poufed, gutsy-guffawing persona all the way to a big bruiser bank.  More power to her!  She  demonstrates that it takes determination, sweat, and some serious tilling of the soil for us to enjoy new BLOOMS (not to mention BLOOMING profits) well into our 40s, 50s and beyond.

So, to paraphrase Paula Deen, what about “Y’ALL”???? What’s in BLOOM for you this month?

Likewise, I gorge on Websites, TV shows, and magazines about decorating, and before I decided to lose the weight I gained in business school (MBA = Much Bigger Ass), I used to read cookbooks to decompress, and for a laugh:  I mean, if you have time to cut up and roast whole leg bones from a mammal, your name is either Martha Stewart or Hannibal Lecter.

When I really need a rest from work, I crave books, TV shows, Websites, movies, actors, and magazines that feature celebrities:

1) Those who, “just like us” (as Us Magazine says) face and conquer adversity (getting fat, dieting and then getting fat again); or those whose anatomies are even more surreal than their wax-museum avatars: (e.g., Madonna’s arms, Angelina’s lips, Cher’s cheekbones);

2) Those who embody the accomplishments, joys and foibles of women over 40 who find their comedic voice, wisdom and other enlightenment in getting older, as they DARE for love, career, children, or other passions – despite money, memories, or mirrors.

Anything with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Cher, Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Holly Hunter, Mary Louise Parker, Kyra Sedgwick, Marisa Tomei, and other visionary, intelligent and motivated women over 40 who face a challenge; especially, when they mobilize their brains, balls, or bucks to win the day or move on, shoulders held high either way.  Not 40 yet, but Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon has more middle-aged quirks than a lot of women over 40, yet manages to swagger at detractors, snipe at debaters and diss dilettantes stupid enough to take her on.

If “moving on” for any of these women involves sneaking up on and then shooting her husband’s Fatal Attraction/bunny poacher in the bathtub, or getting down on her knees pledging sacrifice to God to demonstrate The End of the Affair, or choking from sobbing in the pickup truck of her homely farmhand husband as she watches her one-true-hunk-of-burnin’-love leave town forever over The Bridges of Madison County, all the better.  The more pathos and bathos, the better the pleasure and complete the escape.  Streep’s head was literally in the clouds when she flew with Redford in Out of Africa, and they hadn’t even made love yet – the whole movie is thrilling and the music alone is transporting.

Audiences of all ages and all genders, scream with Pavlovian predictability at the I Love Lucy episode featuring the chocolate factory assembly-line.  Likewise, Carol Burnett and her hilarious send-up of Gone with the Wind, prancing and stumbling around with a huge cascade of draperies – rod, finials and all – on her tiny frame.  And who would DARE play a woman past her prime but still making it and shaking it as poignantly and sympathetically as Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie?

Regardless of the names of the dames, you don’t need a lot of bucks to get your yucks.  NetFlix, which seems to have every movie ever made, has subscription packages for every size wallet.

Finally, here are two witty, funny and irreverent guides that should be on the bookshelf of every woman over 40 who needs a BREAK:  

Cinematherapy – The Girl’s Guide to Movies for Every Mood, by Nancy Peske and Beverly West; and,

Bibliotherapy – The Girl’s Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives (same authors).

Baby boomers – those of us born in the years between 1946 and 1964 – have been called the most self-actualized and expressive generation in history, but there have always been passionate, committed, and desirable women pursuing all sorts of DARING and fulfilling feats of love, work and advocacy well into their post-40 years.

Here’s our salute to a few Famous Over-40 PASSIONISTAS We LOVE: Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, Diane Lane, Jodie Foster, Robin Roberts, Cate Blanchett, and Vanessa Williams, to name a few.

Over 50 and DARING to be healthier, wealthier and wiser than ever: Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dame Judi Densch, Glenn Close, Lynne Whitfield, Stockard Channing, Sigourney Weaver, Diane Sawyer and my personal favorite, Bette Midler.

Ageless icons who have inspired generations of women:

Clara Barton (1821-1912). Teacher, nurse, humanitarian; founded the American Red Cross at 52.

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967). Infamous writer who LOVED talking the nasty and doing the naughty. Indulged her DARING PASSION for words - piercing and pounding - into her 70s. 

Margaret Sanger (1879-1966). Birth control activist, 42 when she started Planned Parenthood. 

Coco Chanel (1883-1971).  Still working in 1954, at 70! The only fashion industry person named to TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995). Forced to retire at 66, started the Gray Panthers to promote and defend seniors. Worked passionately for 20 more years.

Estee Lauder (1906-2004).  Driven by quality and to help women look their best, virtually invented the concept of “makeover” and free-sample promotions.  Worked into her 80s.

Liz Claiborne (1929-2007). Disgusted with the quantity and quality of clothes for working women, founded her company when she was 46. In 1986, became the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500. 

Carolyn McCarthy (1944-     ). Launched her political career (U.S. Congresswoman from New York) 10 years ago, at 54, after the murder of her husband and five other commuters by a crazed gunman.  Passionately acknowledges that she will always be known as the “gun lady” though she champions other causes, especially education.

Katie Couric (1952-    ). Was 48 when she began her crusade against colon cancer (who can forget her colonoscopy shown on national TV), after a flawed diagnosis claimed the life of her husband, Jay Monahan, at 42. Continues to DARE – just ask Sarah Palin, A-Rod, and the pompous cynics who wrote her off.

Dara Torres (1967-    ). First swimmer in the U.S. to compete in five Olympics, and the first woman over 40 to swim in the Olympics, winning three Silver medals.

AND, finally, who better to salute in this month that celebrates LOVE, than Dr. Susan LOVE. At 60, she continues her quest, through the Dr. Susan LOVE Research Foundation, to eradicate breast cancer within our lifetime. In 2003, she published the second edition of Dr. Love’s Menopause and Hormone Book, one of the first books to raise concerns about the widespread long-term use of hormone therapy.

For all women who have suffered from breast cancer and survived, and for all those who have LOVED and lost them, we are grateful for Dr. Susan Love, for what she does for LOVE.