Bae watch: Engagement farming in the misogyny market

A particularly derogatory comment on an ageing actress, a former beauty queen of India, did the rounds on social media in recent times. It implied that her declining looks were the reason behind her rumoured failing marriage. Misogynists were quick to pick it up, add their two-bit to it and circulate it, practically rendering it viral. Misogyny compounded with ageism seems to be rearing its ugly head east and west.

- KOLI MITRA

Of all the dazzling models, actresses, rockstars and other assorted goddesses of glamour that graced the 1990s (you know, back when I was young), I NEVER would have guessed that it would be Pamela Anderson who would someday emerge as the poster girl for growing old with dignity and grace. Back then, Anderson was known for a certain type of sex appeal that was NOT, shall we say, "high class." She was known for her nude appearances in men's magazines; her breast implants; her cheesy, "dumb-blonde" public persona; a leaked sex-tape with her ill-behaved, heavy-metal-rocker first husband (Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe); and most of all, her starring role in the laughably empty but hugely popular, beach-themed TV series Bay Watch—which mostly comprised extended shots of swimsuit-clad female lifeguards (all with suspiciously porn-inspired physical assets), urgently running toward the water where someone was in need of rescue.

Now, almost three decades and several marriages later, Anderson has flowered into that rare Hollywood unicorn: a beautiful woman who seems ok with aging—and not in that preachy, pseudo-enlightened and self-important way, either. She just comes across like a normal, happy person, comfortable in her own skin, working on some interesting projects and living a great personal life with two grown kids she loves. At age 57, she seems to have better things to do than spend her life trying artificially to preserve or recapture her youth or her erstwhile status as the preeminent tabloid babe, or "bae" as the youngsters might say these days. (Do they still say that? I don't know. I'm getting too old to keep up with youth lingo).