A word to the wise: Telling a woman she looks younger than her age is not always a compliment. Such was the lesson learned by an unsuspecting salesman at the Calgary International Airport earlier this month.
A Montreal woman, Annick Robinson, was on her way back home after a conference when she was suckered into a skincare shop at the airport. But after the sales pitch got personal, Robinson fired back. She later took to Facebook to share her experience.
At first, Robinson said the salesman tried to charm her by guessing her to be 12 years younger than she really is -- likely, in an attempt to flatter her. But rather than being flattered, Robinson says "a light bulb went off" in her head.
"Women have more important things to do in 2016 than spend a single other minute worried about our wrinkles or the acceptability of our thighs," Robinson wrote in an update to her original post.
When Robinson replied, "I look my age and that's OK actually," the salesman didn't relent.
In a conversation she detailed, the salesman went on to warn that her wrinkles would get deeper by age 45 and that she would need "surgery" after 50 to correct the sagging in her face. (Robinson posted a bare-faced selfie with the rant -- and we think she looks absolutely perfect.) Still not backing down, he pointed out her smile lines and the bags under her eyes.
Robinson rebutted that those bags were earned from sleepless nights as the mother of a young child and that the lines are from laughing a lot with her husband. "He loves how I look ... I don't think I need your cream," she said.
"What's wrong with a woman aging?" Robinson asked again, to the now-flustered salesman.
Robinson was determined not to let the salesman undermine her confidence as a woman and wants us all to do the same.
I look fine now, and when I'm 45 I will look fine, and when I'm 50 I will look fine, because there is nothing wrong with a woman aging. Old age is a privilege denied to many, and I don't appreciate you marketing youth instead of your products, and denigrating aging women as a sales tactic. Thank you, but I don't want or need your cream. — Annick Robinson
The post has since been shared over 41,000 times and has drawn nearly 5,000 comments. Robinson wanted to start a conversation -- and she's done just that.
"Let's end predatory marketing practices that sell self-loathing to women from cradle to grave ... Flip the script when you hear it. Every time. Until it loses its power. The next generation needs you to change the game," she wrote.
Commenters have said the post "inspires other women to buck up and stop allowing the cosmetic industry and media to shame us into thinking growing older is unnatural," and even prompted some women to share their own selfies.
This is one movement we can definitely get on board with.
Related
Before You Go
