Invisible women

Annegret, a teacher from Berlin, is 65. She has thirteen children with five fathers and seven grandchildren. And is expecting IVF quads…

I told you she was bonkers.

It also doesn’t say an awful lot about the doctors involved either. But it’s certainly given us all something to think about.

Older women have always made society nervous.

They were alright if they were being useful – looking after old husbands, caring for grandchildren, doing the cooking, nursing sick relations. Otherwise …

Rich widows had to give up their huge homes and estates move to the dower house, or even a nunnery. Somewhere out of the way, at least. Out of sight and out of mind.

The poor, if they lived alone, were too often derided – or feared – as witches. And God help them if they had a cat for company. The best most could hope for was a seat by a sympathetic fireside where they could pod peas or do the mending to earn their keep while not eating too much or getting in the way.

It’s an attitude that lingers. Old women are still expected to keep quiet and know their place. After a certain age they become invisible – however much purple or however many red hats they might wear. No one really notices them much as people any more.

Despite the march of feminism, and our increasing life spans, there’s still a sneaky feeling that old women should pass the time until dying by just staying in the background and being quietly useful and supportive to other people and not expect a life of their own.

So Annegret has in a way – even if it’s in a way that most of us would think wrong on so many levels – made us re-think the way 65-year-olds normally behave.

And so has Hillary Clinton.

At 67 and to no great surprise, she’s finally announced that she’s running for president of the US. Daughter Chelsea had her first baby last year. Granny Hillary could no doubt fill her time both usefully and happily with a little light baby-sitting and people would smile benevolently.

No way. Instead, Hillary is aiming for what is pretty much the top job in the world. Power and influence, huge responsibility and no chance of invisibility.

Already the Twitter trolls have started - She’s a woman! She’s a grandmother! She’s 67! She has wrinkles!

It will no doubt get worse but she’s grown up enough to cope. If she gets in – and she stands a decent chance – she’d still be president aged 72, maybe even 76.

That’s one old lady who won’t be invisible.

MEANWHILE at the Coachella festival in California, Madonna, 56, leapt on unsuspecting rapper, Drake, 28 and nearly snogged his face off.

Afterwards he could be seen shaking his head and wiping his mouth in disgust.

He was probably lucky. If she’s like that at 56, what on earth will she be like when she’s 66?

STUDENT accommodation is getting more luxurious. Bad move.

More student accommodation now apparently includes en suite bathrooms, luxury kitchens, gyms, security and concierge.

Bit of a leap from The Young Ones’ shared squalor – or my student days with ten of us – including two incredibly posh girls with titles - and just one chilly bathroom.

But it’s madness, setting too high a standard. It raises expectations.

To afford that same standard of living on their own when they graduate, they’re going to have to earn around £40,000 a year in their first job. Not much chance of that for most.

No wonder the real world comes as a horrible shock to so many new graduates.

At least if you’re used to squalor, things can only get better….

WHEN Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese grand prix he aimed the high pressure stream of champagne straight into the face of the Chinese hostess. She clearly didn’t like it but tried to maintain a polite smile in public. Lewis just carried on grinning and aiming the champagne like a gleeful ten year old taunting someone who can’t fight back.

He might be a great driver but he’s a bully.

Still, if he tries it in a less polite country he might find the hostess grabbing the bottle and bashing him with it.

That’ll wipe the silly grin off his face.

WOMEN over 50 are the biggest buyers of beauty products. Of course.

The deeper the wrinkles, the more it takes to fill them…

CODE of a Killer drama last week based on the development of genetic fingerprinting showed the brilliance of scientist Alec Jeffreys and the doggedness of policeman David Baker when, for the very first time, they used genetic testing to catch a killer.

They took blood tests from 5,000 men. It was a triumph of science and teamwork. And changed the face of detection for ever.

And yet…

The final breakthrough came only when a woman in a pub overheard a chap boasting about how he’d been paid to take the blood test instead of his boss.

Science, detection, determination – and they still needed a woman’s nosiness to pull it all together…

Happiness is clean sheets – sliding into a freshly made bed topped the list of feel-good moments in a recent survey for Bupa

It beat other simple treats such as feeling the sun on your face, a stranger saying thank you, an act of random kindness, the smell of cut grass, new socks, popping bubble wrap or singing in the shower.

Interestingly – apart from picking up a bargain in the sales or the smell of a new car – nearly all the favourite moments cost little or nothing.

Simple pleasures are best and it takes very little to make us happy.

And the politicians can’t even manage that…

Women apparently ask for £4,000 a year less than men when applying for jobs. The theory is that women undervalue themselves.

No. Women know what they’re worth. The men are just delusional.

Anyway, asking for more is one thing – actually getting it is quite another.

BACKCHAT

Dear Sharon

Today you said about daffodils looking lovely on motorway embankment. Shortly before I read that we were driving through Staindrop and noticed the driver of a white van arms full of daffodils he had picked from roadside. I was disgusted - unbelievable.

Eileen Glennie

Dear Sharon

The truly privileged children are those who have parents who love them and spend time with them, talking, playing and teaching them how to behave. I think a hotel with unlimited sweets for children sounds like a nightmare.

Lucy Kesley