We would be in a significantly better place as a people if “old” and “fat” could be neutral descriptions of fact and not seen as insults by default.

On David Tennant and Aging

So, I’ve seen a lot of posts in response to Tumblr users’ habit of affectionately calling their favorite middle aged dudes “old men”, David Tennant in particular, saying things like “clearly you’ve never met an actual old person”, “omg you talk about these guys like they’re 80”, “please be normal about people aging”, etc. And on one hand, all of these statements are objectively right and true! But as someone who’s always been really fascinated by and found a lot of beauty in getting older (which I’ve explored in some of my writing on A03 because nobody else is going to do it for me), I’d like to provide a bit more nuance on how I think this label applies to David in particular.

David, obviously, in literal terms, is not “old”, at least not to me- I don’t personally consider people old until they get past 60. 52 is middle aged, simple as that. And yet, when I see David stuck with the “old man” label, it still somehow feels weirdly right, for a number of reasons.

It annoys me so much when people say David “hasn’t aged a day since Doctor Who”, because, well…

He clearly has. A lot. He’s got forehead creases, deep crows’ feet and eyebags, and I think that post-Fourteen we’re gonna see him rocking the grey temples a LOT more. He also has the voice of an older man now, his upper range is still there but the default is much more deep and rich, with a gravelly, rumbling quality that just goes straight through you. I personally think Broadchurch was when David finally started to embrace looking his age- Alec Hardy just wouldn’t have been served by Ten’s fresh-faced boyishness.

Obviously, these are the kinds of changes you’d expect any 52-year-old man to have, but something about David just makes it all seem a bit more… intense? The expressiveness of his face combined with his almost gaunt frame makes his wrinkles very prominent, and when he works his voice to its emotional extremes, his lower register can sound positively ancient, to devastating effect.

David, I think, is someone with an old soul- I don’t think he could be as good as he is at playing ancient characters like Crowley and The Doctor if he weren’t. He has lived so many lives, given so much of himself to so many characters, often incredibly tragic ones, and I think it wears on him. David also has five kids. FIVE. Do you know how exhausting it is to be one of the hardest working actors alive and be a present, loving father to even ONE child? But David somehow does it anyway! Nowadays I see him and my heart breaks because he looks so tired, so weary and fragile. But he’s all the more beautiful for it to me because I know that that is because he is kind. He’s a deeply empathetic person who feels and lives to the absolute fullest, and that story is written so clearly on his face, along with every other story he has ever been a part of.

There’s other things about David that make the label endearingly fitting- his utter hopelessness when it comes to technology, for instance. And he’s just got that warm, wise, grandpa energy too sometimes- look at that above Fourteen picture and tell me I’m wrong!

I once showed my friend who’d only seen David in Doctor Who and Harry Potter a picture of David from Around The World in 80 Days. It was a particularly emotional scene, and his face had just the most beautiful expression of compassion and sadness, every wrinkle on full display. And she said, in a less than complimentary fashion, “he looks so old!” Which, of course, offended me quite a bit at first. But to me, referring to David as old almost feels like a badge of honor, something he’s earned by living fully and selflessly, working hard and being wise and compassionate beyond his years. I think David himself is secretly more than a little insecure about the fact that he’s getting older. There’s sadness behind every jovially self-depreciating remark he’s made about his age in the past year, particularly in comparing himself to Ncuti Gatwa. I know how much David struggles with his impostor syndrome and how people perceive him, and I can clearly see in his eyes the fear of being discarded, the anxiety he feels about if he’ll still be as loved as he was back in 2007 now that he’s closer in age to King Lear than he is to Romeo. So I hope David knows it’s a privilege to watch him grow older, to watch his soul and talents deepen with the crinkles around his eyes. If I, in my silly goofy tumblr girl-ness, call David Tennant an old man, it’s because it’s a label that suits him beautifully- even if it isn’t TECHNICALLY an accurate one yet.

nature is healing

Aging is a gift to women

sadly not given to all. Enjoy the gift Mother Nature has been waiting to give you personally.

💜 THIS POST IS FOR WOMEN ONLY !! MALES DNI 💜

i want crinkles around my eyes. i want hair that is patchy and streaked with gray. i want to wear old fashioned out of style clothes. i want my tattoos to be wrinkly and ugly. i want saggy tits and weathered hands and liver spots. i want a wavery creaky voice. i want scars and pockmarks where my piercings used to be. i want pucker wrinkles around my mouth from drinking out of straws and kissing people. if you try to sell me any creams or serums a big bomb will explode.

I love you smile lines and worry lines and grey and white hair and wrinkles and purple spiderweb veins and the process of aging and living in a body that is standing the test of times. I love you experiences that make you wiser and stories that make you laugh, and every little process that happens to get to the point where you have so many memories because you have the fortune to be here and be so radiant

Stay hydrated !!💦

i am begging artists to draw old people actually. this concept of treating 25+ as death warmed over is so insidious its everywhere and im sick of seeing it in art. start drawing adults with smile lines and grey hair and balding and double chins and sun spots and flabby arms and age-thinned lips and frown lines and droopy eyelids please please *please* learn to love yourself and others and the natural passage of time and process of growing old through art. please. i know drawing new things is scary but its okay i am holding your hand through this we can do it together

edit ALSO FAT AND DISABLED PEOPLE THIS IS A PRO DISABILITY AND FATNESS POST. AND TRANS. if i catch t*rfs or tr*df*ms touching this im getting the brick

Fuck "anti-aging" I'm pro aging

And not "age like a fine wine" bullshit

No! I want to age like a person!

I want to collect wrinkles like they are Pokémon!

I want my face to get so wrinkly you'll have to iron my face to find out my eye colour!

When I'm 90 I don't want people to see me and think "they aged gracefully!

I want people to see my small wrinkly form and let it fool them into letting me get away with little old man crimes!

I want to look like I can lay a curse on your household and have stolen all the jam packets from the cafe!

I want to age into a wrinkly menace to society!

FUCK!

Wrinkles are so pretty- wrinkles mean you spent your whole life laughing, and smiling, and just- being ALIVE.

Wrinkles, Scars, Grey Hairs? All of those mean you lived, you got the wonderful opportunity to grow old and wise, and I think that’s more beautiful than anything.

My hot new take on wrinkles:

what could be better evidence of a kind heart and years of joy than a facial feature which gives me a sneak preview of the pathways your smile creates over time?

Aging is a gift.

The response to my David Tennant and Aging post has been SO lovely, I truly appreciate all of the comments! For those of you who liked it, I wanted to leave a one shot I wrote a couple months ago here for you guys. It didn’t get a ton of attention back when I posted it, but I think you’ll find it relevant to the topic :)

SUMMARY: Heartbreak and loneliness have left Crowley marked in more ways than one. Aziraphale helps him see that this isn’t such a bad thing.

by the way, i think ageing is beautiful and if youre showing laughter lines and worry wrinkles and crows feet or frown lines or gray hairs or whatever, you are gorgous and dont you find it pretty how long youve lived? how your live has been filled with emotions strong enough theyre etched on you like hyroglifics?

I love you acne I love you pimples I love you freckles I love you strawberry skin I love you excema I love you psoriasis I love you scars I love you blemishes I love you birthmarks I love you eye bags I love you dimples I love you wrinkles

I love you textured skin and I love you "imperfections" youre all so beautiful <3

thank you djthrillkill

I won't rest until we as a culture can ask each other (politely) how old we are without it being seen as inherently insulting or degrading.