Pierre-Henri Tavoyo, philosopher. “Being yourself today is preferable to looking or not looking your age.”

Philosopher, President of the College of Philosophy, Pierre-Henri Tavoliot has been studying age issues in our lives for nearly twenty years. Already in 2007, he published with Eric Deshawan. A philosophy of the ages of life (1), a subject he continued to confront, especially through his conferences, with the mores of our modern society. It’s about bodies, but not only. Because how do you go through life, succeed in the sense of “carrying out a more or less coherent journey, a personal life project,” ideally going through “all” eras of life? This is quite a philosophical path, at a time when we live in a general age blur (children want to grow up faster, adults do not look their age, and the elderly would like not to be left out). If in the past “age forced us”, says the philosopher (we had to submit to it), today we no longer want it to limit us.

Madame Figaro. – What has changed over the last decade regarding this big issue of age?
Pierre-Henri Tavolo. – The issue of biotechnology is the most developed. the fact that aging can be said to be a disease and that we will be able to cure it, but for the rest, the thesis of the blurring of ages remains very powerful.

In other words.
The centuries have multiplied. The unchanged parts of life, which marked stages, have become relative. Menopause, andropause, all these major changes in the body occur at very different ages, whereas before they all followed more or less the same rhythm. This is due to external and environmental factors (endocrine disruptors, diet, stress). The same goes for parenthood, retirement… or at the other end of the scale, adolescence. Age itself doesn’t mean much anymore. Why get your license at 18 and not earlier if you are capable of it? Why stop working at 64 if you’re in great shape? Either way, these barriers seem unbearable. Age discrimination will become a problem in the coming years.

When we measure everything, will age no longer be a reliable unit?
Indeed, the idea of ​​being yourself takes precedence over looking or not looking your age today. Age has become kind of secondary. As with temperature, you could almost say there is emotional age and real age. If we stay on this trend, soon, because we are gender fluid, we will probably become ageists, and we will have to put our age and the age we think we are on our passports. (Is laughing!)

In the video, 58-year-old model Paulina Porizkova presents herself naturally on Instagram

Has 50 turned into a new century of opportunity?
Yes, it’s what we call a “midday demon,” but not what we usually think of. Actually, the phrase refers more to the time when I’m an adult and I say to myself, “I’ve achieved my life goals” or “I haven’t achieved them and I’m going to work towards them.” It is sometimes a moment of crisis, but also a very beautiful moment, a new phase begins. We see other horizons emerging, other flavors being allowed.

Why, then, does the saying persist that “it’s not my age anymore?” Where does this limiting idea come from? An individual or a society?
Both, in fact. Appearance is influenced by very strong social cues, including those we have about ourselves. There was a time in women’s lives, for example, when they blended into a uniform that they thought should fit them. This is all dated. Today, the possibility of maneuvering is much greater. Those who do their best, and avoid excess or mockery, carry within them a measure of authenticity and sincerity. When it is designed, thought out, everything is permissible, it is the novelty of the time. Take Jane Fonda, she is admirable.

Where does this fascination come from?
Because our body is not our only code. When freedom dominates nature, it becomes ultimate freedom.

(1) A philosophy of the ages of life, by Eric Deschamps and Pierre-Henri Tavoy, Grasset Editions, 544 pages, €31.90. Available at leslibraires.fr.