Jane Seymour.Photo:Andrew Toth/FilmMagic
Andrew Toth/FilmMagic
She’s a formerBond girl, a two-timeGolden Globewinner, andEmmywinner, and yet,Jane Seymoursays she’s felt “unseen” in society.
“I spoke to a lot of friends of mine and they said, ‘Yes, I am unseen, and I am unheard,’” Seymour, 73, tells PEOPLE, admitting that she too has felt unseen as she ages, especially in her day-to-day life—even though “I’m on television and and people do pay attention to me more than the average person.”
Jane Seymour.Araya Doheny/Getty
Araya Doheny/Getty
“Here in my household, when something breaks down, and I call up and I say, ‘Can you help me with this?’ The man will actually look over my head and find the nearest man in the room to talk to about it. It’s like I’m unseen,” says themom of six.
“Like excuse me, I own this house, I pay for it, I actually made the call to you,” continues Seymour. “I am the person paying you for this information. Please respect me, and let’s have the conversation.”
She also addressed how unseenism can impact a woman’s health — and says she’s found a way to manage the anxiety that can come with speaking up at the doctor’s office.
Jane Seymour on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, in 1993.CBS via Getty
CBS via Getty
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Seymour encourages women to go to the doctor with a prepared “cheat sheet” of questions. “You need to self-advocate,” she says. “Ask the questions you want answers to.”
“I love being a woman, I don’t say that I want to be a man at all,” she adds. “But I just would like to be respected and heard; I think when you get older they kind of look at you like, ‘Oh well, she’s past her prime. She’s a little old woman, she’s not important.'”
“I’m 73 and I don’t feel old,” she adds, “I realize that the rest of the world probably looks and goes, ‘Ohh, that’s old.’ What I want to do is redefine it.”
“It’s not old,” Seymour tells PEOPLE. “That is wisdom on two legs.”
source: people.com
