There are a lot of "middle aged "people in the world who would perhaps be upset by that assumption. I know if I was young enough to still be considered middle aged I would be.
I'm speaking as a middle-aged woman myself. I see a great deal of quite unnecessary cattiness from middle-aged women towards younger ones, particularly nice-looking ones with great figures, like Fern. I was on the receiving end of it myself when I was a pretty young woman with a great figure, too.
It's one of the reasons I dislike it so much when I see it in women my own age now, and I see no reason to make excuses for it. It's jealousy and resentfulness at getting older, as far as I can see.
fillymum said:
This woman's problem has nothing to do with her age.
Isn't that a bit of an assumption, too?
filly mum said:
She will have been rude and ignorant all her life, young, middle aged and as she goes through life if she is lucky enough to reach old age without having someone finish her off.
That may well be the case, neither of us knows for sure, all we can do is speculate as to the source of such nastiness on the part of a complete stranger.
The main thing is to try to help Fern understand that the problem here lies with the person who insulted her, not with herself, as that's what she seems to be struggling with at the moment. She's shown herself to be a very mature and thoughtful young woman, who's worked very hard to achieve her lovely figure, and it's sad that she's been made to doubt herself and her achievement.
Keep your head up, Fern.