LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE
Berry’s response to Justice’s rehashing of their marriage was perfect. She celebrated herself wearing a string bikini and balancing a glass of red wine with her toes in a photo carousel on her birthday, aiming discreetly, but squarely, at Justice with her caption: “Phew…! Cooking, cleaning and mothering.” Yes, justice is best served cold. Nearly 20 years on, Berry has two kids – a daughter with ex-boyfriend Canadian model Gabriel Aubry, and a son with ex-husband actor Olivier Martinez. Berry embodies the greatest lesson of all: Keep calm and carry on.
DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE M WORD
In this moment in the spotlight, Berry was seen dancing on her social media with the message: “You look happier. Thanks, I’m embracing menopause.” Berry is not the only female celebrity to discuss menopause, of course – in the past few years, we’ve seen Oprah Winfrey, Naomi Watts, Michelle Obama, Cameron Diaz, Angelina Jolie and Shania Twain all talk about the confusing, frustrating and often debilitating life transition.
But there is something exquisite, reassuring and heartening that a woman as beautiful and talented as Berry chose to use the word “embracing” and pair it with a video of herself dancing. She is inspiring, yes, but please note: we just might be on the verge of hearing too much rah-rah menopause, yay! Grumpy is our natural state now.
WEAR THE BIKINI
Again, not to put too fine a point on it, Halle Berry is insanely beautiful and has a figure that likely benefits from not just a genetic lottery win but otherworldly discipline, an army of trainers and aesthetics engineers. However, we at Zoomerist believe in women celebrating women, and choose to channel our envy in a positive direction.
The message? Wear the damn bikini. Or whatever makes you feel sexy, seen and appreciated. There is no danger of any perfection happening around my pool, but that doesn’t mean I/we should hide our lights under any bushels. Or voluminous caftans or towels. We can admire Berry’s otherworldly apparition and be at peace with our own. That is the way forward, people.
WORDS HAVE POWER
In the days after her birthday, Berry doubled down on her messaging. “We have to get older, but we don’t have to get old.” Berry has been working on maximizing this stage of her life for a while. Named this summer to Forbes’ 50 over 50 list, she called this stage of life her “greatest act.”
Her impetus to become an aging-with-pride advocate came, she told the magazine, when she was misdiagnosed with herpes instead of what was at the time perimenopause. She channelled her anger into a startup – a tele-health initiative aimed at delivering menopause information to women. “We all know that women do better when they have the support of other women,” she said. “Feeling like we are a tribe together.”
FLIP THE SCRIPT
As Berry told Fortune magazine, “Historically, women, as we age, just get old, right? Men get sexy. They get grey hair and become silver foxes. We’re just old. We are haggard.”
Once we are no longer baby-making machines, she said, our time in the sun is up. The lesson she has to share? Flip that script: “Aging is a privilege, and we should see it that way. We should feel that way about getting older. We should feel like the crown jewels of our society.”
Berry has often said that she hates always being told how pretty she is. “I’m more than this shell I walk around in.” That’s the best takeaway from her life, and her remarkable show of chutzpah this week as an ex from 30 years ago dared to crash her birthday party with complete nonsense. We are all so much more than the shell we walk around in. Decorate your shell any way you choose.
Always asking questions,
—Leanne Delap
