If you, like me, were a rebellious young woman growing up in the 70s and 80s, you certainly had Rita Lee as a huge inspiration. She was the young woman I wanted to be: free, debauched, who threw herself at 100 an hour in everything she wanted to try, from sex to rock’n’roll (yes, including drugs too). She taught us that it was okay to be the black sheep of the family. She has always been at the forefront, fighting to give girls the same rights as boys. Always tearing up the book of rules of how we should behave.
And Rita did not stop being rebellious and paving the way for people as she got older. She began to face this phase of life as she always did. Open wide, living and saying all there is to say. In her fashion, she fought ageism long before this subject became an agenda. See an example of this, in the video below, at the age of 45, in 1992 when absolutely nobody talked about menopause, Rita tells in an interview with Bruna Lombardi that she was studying the subject.
Of course, there are no rules for getting old, everyone discovers their own way along the journey. But I will certainly take forever these lines from my eternal muse on how to face this phase in the freest possible way. Thank you for so much, Rita.
“I’m 45 years old and I’m reading a lot about menopause, which is a taboo subject. It’s hard for you to exchange a picture with a woman who is in menopause and who doesn’t feel embarrassed because she is in menopause. It’s a prison, it’s crazy . I said, ‘no’, Joan of Arc, let’s go again, our little horse, to rescue the beauty of women!”
“When you’re 20, you do whatever you want. The cute little body, everything works. I did everything I wanted. But now is the time for you to have access to the witches’ archive. And you don’t have that until you’re 40.”
“I like my wrinkles, they are life’s scars, I respect my skin. I’ve been blonde, I’ve been a redhead, now my hair is the color of the moon, it’s white.”
“I learned to like myself. Rita Lee didn’t have time to see if I liked her, always at concerts, on the road, taking care of the children, at home. When you die, you don’t take anything away from life. You only take the knowledge you learned with you same.”
“I’m really liking this Rita of today. She’s the most familiar to me. I feel like I’ve always been the one here and represented the others. I liked several of them, I didn’t like others. And, if I want, sometimes I pull files from the others. : I can go back to the child, to the pregnant woman… But I feel that this is me, with my white hair, my wrinkles, happy with everything I’ve lived and continue to live.”
“What if you met 17-year-old Rita and could give her some advice? Grow old! But know that getting old is crazy! Getting old is not for sissies. I would give you advice to be more careful with your posture, with your spine! And also I’d say: try all the things you want, but be a little more protective. You don’t have to go all in on everything. Take it easy on one thing or another.”
“Saying that age is on my mind is making fun of my spine. Nothing against those who resort to botoxes and plastic surgery, but I ‘grabbed’ affection on my wrinkles, skin and gray hair, that’s my old new face.”
“Now is the time to have access to the witches’ archive. You only have it after 40, and at 45 it’s another type of archive. That’s the thing: there’s no point in looking for plastic surgery in this thing. The fountain of youth it’s not there, it’s in the beauty of the witch woman, that serene old Indian woman who knows everything. That’s what I want, […] It’s the sorceress I’m interested in.”
“I had a wonderful life, I was lucky to have been born into the family I was born into, lucky to have worked with music for 50 years, making people happy, that’s crazy! Having found Roberto, having had three wonderful children, now two grandchildren . This aging thing is a female sorcery, just like menstruation. Aging, for women, is very crazy.”
“We get powers, we become more attentive to the subtlety of the invisible, of the spiritual speaking to you. In this turmoil that the world is in, you barely hear the subtlety of the angel’s breath, of the light… When you’re young, you have that volcano erupting, making music, fucking. When the old man’s volcano erupts, my old woman wanted to read more, learn, paint… You exchange libido for ‘mortido’ – and in a good way! more to fuck, he’s been screwing his whole life! I want things I don’t know.”
“The fountain of youth is not in plastic surgery. It’s not there. The beauty of the witch woman, that old Indian woman, who is serene, knows everything. That’s what I want, that’s what I’m looking for.”
“There are two ways you can grow old. Either you follow the path of witches, or you follow the path of witches. Witches chase the fountain of youth, and their greatest enemy is time. As for witches, their greatest friend is time. the time.”
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