What's wrong with this picture?

Look hard. Get past her breasts. Tell me what's wrong with this picture.

Can't figure it out? She's been so airbrushed, so removed from reality, so disassociated from her own physical humanity, Playboy accidentally airbrushed out her navel. And didn't notice. Is it any wonder that some men have a hard time trying to relate to a real woman's body?

Yes, I agree - it's a minor oversight, no big deal. But it is a big deal. It speaks to a much larger problem and one that plagues both men and women throughout their entire lives. I'm lucky...much luckier than many women. I ended up with a man (OK, I didn't end up - I deliberately chose a man) who was not brainwashed into believing that carefully lighted, artfully airbrushed, meticulously made-up women actually represent reality. I am lucky that the man in my life considers a 50 year old woman to be more attractive and sexy than a 23 year old. In my experience, he's unusual. I hope I'm wrong. I think I'm hoping for too much.

The reality of an aging woman's body is put out to the world as something as horrifying as finding a spider crawling up your nose. Cellulite (which is considered to be inevitable after the age of 35, but isn't) ranks with the most chilling of Alfred Hitchock's movies. By the age of 50, it is expected that breasts sag to the knees and resemble those 1960's National Geographic
pictures of African tribeswomen. If my stomach doesn't resemble a six-pack, I'm fat and flabby.

So I would like to send out a message to those men under the age of 30. Here's a brief idea of what you could possibly expect from a woman at the age of 50. I stand a towering 5'1" tall, I weigh a massive 110 lbs., I lift weights, I cycle, I hike, I snowshoe, and I have a real life, bonafide belly button. There are occasional hints of cellulite, and the stomach isn't flat as a washboard. But between my energy and my brains, I can out-run, out-think, (and out-drink!) any typical 23 year old...in a heartbeat.

For God's sake world...at least have the brains and attention to recognize when a picture of a woman is missing basic body parts!