At 47, Kate Winslet Explains Why Women Become ‘More Sexy’ in Their 40s
Kate Winslet, 47, says women become sexier and more powerful in middle age.
In her opinion, it’s because they’re able to let go of insecurities and other obstacles out of their control.
“Let’s just be in our power. Why not? Life is just too flipping short,” she said.
Kate Winslet is done with the idea that “sexy” and “youthful” are one and the same. She actually thinks the opposite is true: that women meet their true potential in their 40s.
And that’s partially thanks to the “f*ck it” attitude age brings, Winslet recently told BBC’s Woman’s Hour. “I have arthritis in my big toe and my left foot swells up in the heat,” she quipped. “I’m 47, you know, there are bits that don’t do what you want them to do anymore. And there’s something that’s kind of fab about going, ‘Oh well, that’s just the way it is, isn’t it?’”
In other words, where insecurity once was, age makes room for a higher relationship with self. But you have to get over the societal fear of entering your 40s, first. “I think women come into their 40s—certainly mid-40s—and think, ‘Oh, this is the beginning of the decline,’” she said. “Things start to change and fade in directions that I don’t want them to go in anymore. But I’ve decided: No. We become more woman, more powerful, more sexy.”
She continued: “We grow into ourselves more. We have opportunities to speak our mind and not be afraid of what people think of us. Not care what we look like so much. I think it’s amazing.”
With that, she channeled her inner Shania Twain (who is all about age empowerment). “Let’s go girls!” she exclaimed. “Let’s just be in our power. Why not? Life is just too flipping short.”
Ain’t that the truth.
Winslet has previously spoken about being unabashedly herself as a middle-aged woman. When she played Mare Sheehan in HBO’s Mare of Easttown, she refused body editing of her character’s sex scene, ensuring that Mare—a tired, working single mom—was portrayed accurately. The depiction received a beloved reaction from fans, who appreciated the realness.
“[Mare’s] a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit,” Winslet told The New York Times in 2021. “I will be 46 in October—I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters.”
That experience aligns with her stance on social media. There’s a reason she doesn’t have any online profiles, nor do her kids. She told BBC it’s “tampering with a very basic level of self-esteem, but on a bigger and darker scale.”
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