A
woman between the age of 40 and 60 is sometimes called
a woman of a certain age. This has carried two
opposing meanings.
Either she had lost her youthful energy and
attractiveness, and sometimes compensated by becoming
mutton dressed up as lamb.
Or it could mean someone whose maturity and style made
her very attractive. In this century it has
acquired a 3rd, more powerful, status.
Capo + 1
1.
AmI am a woman of a certain age
There are Em those who’d like to Am
lock me in a cage
Wrap me up in a safety net
But EmI’m not ready to Amgive up yet.
2. I am a woman of a
certain age
My doctor says I have a malaise
He’ll give me a course of HRT
To cure my instability.
No F
longer young but Emnot yet old
Why Fshould I do as EI amtold?
3. For I am a woman
of a certain age
Merely in a transitional stage
My new lease on life has just begun
You can bet the best is yet to come.
4. Yes, I am a woman
of a certain age
And if it’s true that all of life’s a stage
There must be a better part for me
Than staying home just to make the tea.
No I won’t be getting blue rinse curls
Or wearing a twinset — and pearls!
5. For I am a
woman of a certain age
And flame red hair is all the rage
Skin tight jeans and high-heeled boots
Instead of two-piece grey tweed suits.
6. I am a woman of a
certain age
There are those who’d like to lock me in a cage
Wrap me up in a safety net
But I’m not ready to give up yet.
Or finish with verse 3 instead, as the best may indeed be yet
to come for you. Some women of a certain age reach a stage in
life where they have matured like fine wine, having gained
experience, wisdom and independence.
The phrase can carry erotically charged overtones,
particularly in French, where it's used to describe a woman
who can still entice a young man to her boudoir. We could well
sing this verse to describe them.
Brenda
has been writing songs since the 1970’s. She was born and grew
up near London (UK), but moved to Australia in 1974, where she
lived until 1986, and was passionately involved in the environmental
and anti-nuclear movements. Her songs were very
influential in a number of campaigns, and several have been
covered by other artists, or have appeared in documentary film
soundtracks, and continue to be adapted and used in ongoing
campaigns around Australia.
Since meeting her husband, Mark Laurent, in Auckland in 1988,
they have mostly performed together, touring throughout New
Zealand, Australia and the UK, recording several
albums and appearing many times on radio and TV.
Hifi recordings of this song and other tracks by Brenda and
Mark may be downloaded here.
People
“of a certain age”
The
OED reveals that this phrase has been used since the 1700s
as a euphemism for middle aged men. A 1709
midwifery manual argued that
"while
men should not normally be permitted to examine women’s
genitals, It may perhaps be granted that men of a
certain age, men past the slippery season of youth,
may claim the benefit of exemption from impressions of
sensuality, by objects to which custom has familiarized
them."
The OED’s next example comes from
an essay published by Richard Cumberland in 1753.
"I
chose my Lord Davenant here, a man of a certain age,
a widower, d’ye see; not only fit to husband you, Louisa,
but to father you."
But now, in the 21st century
these men tend to be out-of-touch old buffers, or in the
throes of an embarrassing midlife crisis.
There are lots of words rhyming with age. You may like to
write a similar song about such men as these, using some of
the words here,
e.g. gauge, page, rage, wage, assuage, engage,
backstage, enrage, outrage, rampage, teenage,
title page, minimum wage, bacteriophage.
The poet Lord Byron was one of the first to use the phrase
when describing a woman called Laura whose husband Beppo had
been away at sea for years. In 1818, Byron wrote Beppo.
"...A
certain lady went to see the show,
Her real name I know not, nor can guess,
And so we'll call her Laura, if you please,
Because it slips into my verse with ease.
XXII.
She was not old, nor young, nor at the years
Which certain people call a "certain age,"
Which yet the most uncertain age appears,
Because I never heard, nor could engage
A person yet by prayers, or bribes, or tears,
To name, define by speech, or write on page,
The period meant precisely by that word, —
Which surely is exceedingly absurd.
XXIII.
Laura was blooming still, had made the best
Of time, and time return'd the compliment,
She look'd extremely well where'er she went;
A pretty woman is a welcome guest,
And Laura's brow a frown had rarely bent;
Indeed, she shone all smiles, and seem'd to flatter
Mankind with her black eyes for looking at her.
XXIV.
She was a married woman; 'tis convenient,
Because in Christian countries 'tis a rule
To view their little slips with eyes more lenient”
...more
By the
mid-twentieth century this positive depiction of the
middle-aged or older woman had acquired a more openly sexual
dimension. As Somerset Maugham explained in a novel published
in the 1940s
"There’s no better education for a young man than to
become the lover of a woman of a certain age."
And now in the 21st century, “a
woman of a certain age” has been redefined as in verse 3 of
this song. It not about her sexiness or lack of it, but like
Laura in Byron's epic poem, it is about her lack of respect
for the rules that men have historically expected women to
play by.
Experience—in business as well as in the bedroom—has given
women the confidence and the clout to say “to hell with that.”
