A woman of balzac age

Video: A woman of balzac age

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Recently, at lunchtime in the buffet, a colleague sat down at my table and, looking sideways at a friend standing in line at the cashier, a woman of pre-retirement age and a more than dense physique, dressed in a translucent blouse and leggings, said venomously: “No, just look at how our lady of Balzac's age is dressed up! In her years it is time to think about the grandchildren and about the soul”. I asked, “forgetting” for a moment that Honore de Balzac is one of my favorite writers, what age category fits the definition of “a woman of Balzac's age”? "And Balzac's age is how old do you think?" I asked. “Over fifty,” a colleague replied confidently.

Thirty-year-old Russian women in Russia are usually called "girls."

from forty and older

Meanwhile, the heroine of Balzac's novel, independent and free from prejudice, Viscountess d'Eglemont, was 26 years old at the beginning of The Thirty-Year-Old Woman, and only in the finale - about fifty. The society of Balzac's times, to put it mildly, did not approve of such behavior of women, especially those who were in their 40s. After all, the married viscountess succumbed to the forbidden feeling of love and cheated on her husband. It is not surprising that after the release of the novel, breaking all stereotypes, the expression "woman of Balzac's age" received a sarcastic, ironic meaning among the writer's contemporaries. And then it was forgotten.

But not in our country, where today they call adults, mature women "from forty and older." As for the thirty-year-old Russian women, it is customary in Russia to call them "girls" - for example, in public transport - of course, if they do not look much older than their age.

Marriage is the only meaning of life

Today women 30-35 years old can sometimes only think about creating a family in the future and having children, giving all their strength to career growth or “life for themselves”. It is not easy for them to imagine themselves in the place of Balzac's disenfranchised contemporaries, who, at best, expected marriage and three “K” (kinder, kirchen, kyuchen - children, church, kitchen). Further than three "K" women were not recommended to stick out their nose, so that they could not change the true female destiny. And the jealous husband was much calmer …

Before the revolutionary changes of the last century, the overwhelming majority of women could only dream about studies, careers and self-realization. The family remained their lot. And if the representative of the beautiful half of humanity did not manage to acquire a husband and children by the age of thirty, then those around her and she herself were considered hopeless. After all, the chance for marriage - the only possible meaning of life - was reduced to zero for her.

Haven't you married yet?

In the classical sense, a woman of Balzac's age is a woman after 30 who does not fit into the traditional scenario, into the framework that society has defined for her. She may not be married, live in a civil marriage, can afford to fall in love. Nowadays, the age range has shifted, but the attitude towards women of Balzac's age has not changed at all. And if society allows women in Europe to remain unmarried and childless for up to forty or more years, then in our country any relative, neighbor or colleague can afford a hint of insolvency in their personal life or open censure of a woman who does not have her own family. They say that Balzac's age has already approached, but for some reason she is not married …

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They do not hesitate to give a couple of tips on how to dress and behave with men, so that, “finally, at least a poor husband for himself” (not an inferior one, of course, has long been dismantled). I was so "lucky" once. At the age of thirty, being not officially married, I once found myself in an elevator with the mother of my former classmate, who lived on the floors above. "How are you? Have you even gotten married? " - instead of a greeting, the ponderous, tastelessly dressed aunt asked contemptuously. And, knowing that I “didn’t come out,” without waiting for an answer, she immediately began to teach me wits about reason, as is customary in our "land of soviets." At that time I was still too well educated to immediately send the counselor to “take a walk” (although over the years my upbringing in relation to such aunts evaporated), so I restrained myself. But by that time I had something to boast of: a university diploma, and an adored profession - a work of life, and an interesting circle of friends, and wonderful friends, and (what is already there) cute adorers. But I silently stood in front of a simple bazaar aunt, unable to put her in her place, and then for a long time struggled with an inferiority complex that had arisen out of nowhere. This is the price of neighborly "goodwill".

Over the years, many women only open up like flowers, and reveal their attractiveness, including sexual.

Work on yourself

Of course, ladies of Balzac's age need much more time to work on themselves, if they do not want to be like an "old mermaid". You need to have the courage to revise and change your fashionable, taste preferences, to do exercises, especially if you previously allowed yourself to do without gymnastic exercises. It is necessary to choose clothes, get a haircut, make a make-up according to age and social status, because there is nothing sadder in the world of a desperately youthful woman whose youth remained in the last century. Moreover, this age does not cancel relations with the opposite sex. Over the years, many women only open up like flowers, and reveal their attractiveness, including sexual. And the fact that all ages are submissive to love, including Balzac's, is a well-known fact.

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