Jasmine Guy, Halle Berry, Lela Rechon, & More Black Women On Aging, Beauty And Doing It Your Way

Jasmine Guy’s response to critics may be making headlines this week, but Black women have been having this exhausting conversation about aging for years.

Here we go again.

This time, Jasmine is at the center of it.

Jasmine Guy Addresses Aging Criticism Online Following ‘Different World’ Reboot Premiere

Hype around Netflix’s new A Different World series has been fast, and our timelines have been lit up with commentary about Jasmine and her former castmates Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell and Cree Summer. All four make appearances in the new show alongside a new generation of Hillman students.

Seeing Whitley, Dwayne, Ron and Freddie together again gave fans a chance to celebrate characters and actors we have loved for decades. But some of that celebration quickly shifted to criticism of the iconic star, with people comparing the woman they see today to the twenty-something actress who first introduced us to Whitley Gilbert.

Defense of Jasmine came just as quickly. Black women gave her flowers, called out the disrespect and pushed back on the idea that she should somehow look the same decades later. Others called out the colorism showing up in some of the comments and the way darker-skinned Black women’s looks continue to be picked apart.

Jasmine wasn’t here for the negativity either.

“The internet can be brutal to women as we grow older. It asks us to celebrate life while criticizing every sign that we’ve lived it,” she said.

Jasmine continued, “Growing older brings change, and I won’t pretend every change is easy. But beauty, style, and joy don’t have an expiration date.”

She encouraged followers to spend less time judging themselves and each other and more time loving one another, “making memories, and living the life we’re here to live.”

Having to talk about a beautiful Black woman aging gracefully is annoying, quite frankly. The revolving, evolving and continuous conversations about Black women’s looks as they age are tired, sad and, at times, self-hating.

Shouldn’t we know better by now?

From Jasmine Guy To Kenya Moore and Lela Rochon, Black Women’s Looks Stay Up For Debate

Recent photos and videos of Kenya Moore at events celebrating the 75th anniversary of Miss USA had social media talking about her appearance. Some commenters speculated about whether she had cosmetic work done.

Kenya has not publicly said she had a recent procedure. But pictures and video from her appearances were enough to get people analyzing her face and debating what she may or may not have changed.

Whether the 55-year-old got a procedure done or not is her business. Kenya is – and will forever be – gone with the wind fabulous.

Lela Rochon, 62, has dealt with the same ridiculous expectation that women should somehow look the way they did decades ago.

While appearing on Sherri and discussing the possibility of revisiting Waiting to Exhale, Lela brought up the comments people have made about how she looks today compared to when the beloved film was released 30 years ago.

“So all y’all that be saying, ‘She don’t look the same,’ don’t expect me to look the same!” Lela said. “It’s been 30 years.”

Vivica A. Fox & Jackee Harry, Too Know This Conversation Well

Vivica A. Fox has spoken about the same pressure.

“I’m a woman of a certain age, and, you know, life changes,” the 61-year-old actress said while discussing beauty standards in Hollywood earlier this year. “The body changes. You’re not going to be the same size that you were when you were 19, 20 years old. But people forget that sometimes and they can say very mean things to you.”

Vivica also said she is “comfortable in the skin I’m in, flaws and all.”

“I do my best, honey, to keep it tight and right, but I’m still human,” she added.

She later addressed the expectations women face in entertainment. “I’m in a business that you get judged by your looks constantly … sometimes people don’t allow you the grace to age, to be normal, to live a little bit, to have children, to look a little bit more mature, to age. To age is a blessing and a beautiful thing.”

Jackée Harry has been candid about making her own choices, too. Earlier this year, she spoke publicly about getting “yanked,” her way of describing a facelift she chose after losing weight.

The 70-year-old wanted to feel more confident about how she looked.mAnd she should be able to.

RELATED: 21 Black Beauties From The ’90s Who’ve Been Fine Forever

Halle Berry, Sanaa Lathan And Toni Braxton Face A Different Expectation

Women like Halle Berry, 60, Sanaa Lathan, 55, and Toni Braxton, 58 are often celebrated for seemingly finding the fountain of youth.

But even that praise says something about what we expect from women as they get older. Aging gets celebrated much differently when people think they “cannot see it.”

Halle – a known champion for living on youjr own terms at any age – recently spoke about changes.

During a menopause panel, the actress was asked what she is embracing most with age.

“My new face and body,” Halle said. “It is changing. I look in the mirror every day and I see, ‘Oh God, there’s one thing that wasn’t there last week,’ but what I’m proud of is that I can learn to accept that and not turn myself into a monster with all kinds of things we could do today.”

She continued, “I can accept aging as a natural part of life and I can know that I’m more than this body and this face that I’m walking around in.”

Monica Reminds Us What Getting Older Really Means

Monica Denise Arnold, 45, recently put the conversation into perspective during an appearance on Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s IMO podcast.

The singer remembered a young woman who worked for her crying for weeks before she turned 30.

“I looked at her and said do you know the alternative to not ageing? The alternative to not aging is dying, and many people didn’t make it. So when do you celebrate that?” Monica asked.

More of what Monica said. Let’s just celebrating aging. Period.