An 81-year-old woman is a swimwear model and sorry, but how should we feel?

Business mogul Martha Stewart has made history as the oldest cover model of Sports Illustrated at 81 years old and the world has erupted in applause. 

“You look incredible! You’ve still got it, Martha!” 

“Wow, so gorgeous and strong! A true role model for women.” 

“Thank you for doing this and showing everyone that you don’t have to be an 18-year-old model to be beautiful inside and out.”

“Age is just a number, right?”

Yeah, it is. Sure. But I have another question for you: is this what 81 looks like in 2023? 

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In a variety of sexy swimsuits and draped in the kind of hardcore glam that would suggest she's not going near any kind of beach or pool any time soon, Martha looks practically half her age and apparently that's a good thing?
Something to be praised and rewarded.

Lying sprawled out on an outdoor lounge, staring seductively into the camera, or taking a dip in the sea, the grandmother couldn’t look further from her eight decades despite previously insisting she hasn’t had any plastic surgery done. Stewart admits to having had Botox and fillers in the past but as a 33-year-old already on the Botox train, these images have me feeling fairly inadequate. So, I can’t imagine how 81-year-old women are feeling when they see these pictures.

Another question: what is the point of this? To show how women can be objectified at every age? That women can be sexy at every age? Yay. That's thrilling news.

Image: Sports Illustrated.

'No carbs and pilates every other day.'

Martha says she was approached by Sports Illustrated for the cover shot back in November 2022, giving her roughly three months to prepare for the shoot at the end of January. And by prepare, she obviously means change the way she looks, specifically the way her body looks.

“That was a kind of request I’d never had before,” she told USA Today. “To be on the cover at my age was a challenge and I think I met the challenge.” 

The businesswoman, who once served jail time for insider trading and has gone on to become something of a cult icon across generations, then went on to explain how she got ready to pose in her swimmers. 

“I didn't starve myself, but I didn't eat any bread or pasta for a couple of months,” she explained. “I went to pilates every other day, and that was great.

“I live a clean life anyway, exercise and healthy skincare. For me, it is a testament to good living and I think all of us should be thinking about good living, and not about aging because the whole aging thing is so boring.”

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It wouldn't be unreasonable, however, to guess that more than just “good living” is involved here, with a glam squad on standby.

It's hard to see this as anything other than women being presented with practically unattainable standards of beauty. Again. 

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Flicking through Martha’s shots, I kept coming back to this one of her in the pool, wearing a tight black one-piece.

Sure, she’s got freckles, age spots, skin damage, and pigmentation. But a slight discolouration is 'acceptable', isn’t it? Where are the wrinkles, the saggy skin, the crinkles around her lips? Like every photo of a woman ever published in a magazine and increasingly also on social media, it's hard to know what we're actually looking at. Even without all the filters and Photoshop, the hair and make-up and the styling.....it's almost impossible to know what the real Martha Stewart looks like. Let alone whether this is a 'good' thing for older women to be represented like this.

Image: Sports Illustrated.

So why did she do it? Mamamia’s Executive Editor, Holly Wainwright, who turned 50 last year, believes it's a good thing. She says images like this subvert expectations about older women and ultimately, at a time when most women feel invisible, it’s about just being seen. 

“People want older women to disappear, they want them to be 'cute" and quiet,” she says. “And when they're not – say they keep doing outrageous things, like Madonna, or they keep trying new things, like Martha (she was NOT a swimsuit model at 30 or 50 or 60) – we don't like it.

“I love the fact that across the board women over 60, 70, and 80, are like, 'NOT DONE YET'. They’re defying the expectations of cute and dignified little old ladies.”

And that is something I can certainly look up to.  

Image: Sports Illustrated.