Nigerian UK-based fashion and lifestyle blogger, Fisayo Longe in one of her blog posts which she titled NO EXPIRY DATE touched on the sensitive topic of women and the age-limits that society imposes on them. The pressure according to Fisayo builds gradually and increases year-in-year-out until it gets to a height that is less subtle as women approach age 30.
Her post explained that society’s bizarre expectations demands that all women on earth must achieve the exact same things as having a man, marriage and children by that age. Age 30 is like the unspoken expiry date of women that society has systematically forced down for generations, but that is the idea that the blogger says she wants to defeat and expects other women to challenge.
She wondered aloud in another part of her post about how unstoppable women would become if they dared to live with the freedom that men do- no time-limits, no date of expiration.
Read her full post below:
I never realised growing up that being a woman would one day feel like a handicap. It’s like one minute you’re living life care-free and taking all your days and experiences as they come, and the next minute you’re being hounded about reaching certain milestones in life that you can’t even fully control. Nobody warns you about how the pressure slowly builds until it consumes you and you start to see yourself through the eyes of someone else and feel inadequate about not ticking boxes that you’re not even interested in ticking just yet.
I wonder if all the people who will ask me at my cousin’s wedding on Sunday when my time will come and remind me that the clock is ticking, ever think of asking me whether I’ve found myself. Whether I know who I am and the woman I want to be. Whether I’m on track to fulfilling my purpose. Or whether they are just so oppressed by society’s way of placing an expiry date on women and know no better than to continue the chain of oppression.
Just like any uncomfortable form of systemic oppression, it takes conversation to build awareness to start to address the issues. I love a brand that goes the extra mile to improve the lives of their target audience.
SK-II is starting this conversation to educate and change destiny. Watch the video that is challenging society to change our thoughts and realise that there is more to life than these boxes that women are being convinced that they must tick by certain ages:
