For years, social media users have been distributing essays that describe the benefits of women over 40. We checked whether this text was actually written by a Russian showman.
The text begins with the words “As I get older, I appreciate women over forty more and more. There are many reasons for this." The author further lists these reasons, including the restraint of such women, self-esteem, generosity in praise, insight, honesty, frankness and many other positive qualities.
Facebook became the main platform for distributing the text signed by Nagiyev - publications appeared there over the years, which at the time of writing this analysis gained 3200, 1300, 1200, 1000, 1000, 980, 960, 790, 760 And 530 reposts. In May 2024, the text experienced a new round of popularity - one of publications Social media users have shared it more than 5,000 times.
Dmitry Nagiyev is a public figure. During his career, the artist gave many interviews. He reduced his media activity to almost zero after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Nagiev has only one verified account on social networks - the profile @nagiev.universal in Instagram. Neither there, nor in the showman’s interview, nor in other articles and videos with his participation, “Verified” found any statements included in the viral text.
If you trace the history of the dissemination of this text on the Internet, you will notice that Nagiyev steel attributed in October 2014. Before that in 2013–2014 V social networks and on various Russian-speaking websites Another person was indicated as the author - American journalist Andy Rooney (1919–2011), host of one of the columns in the American television show “60 Minutes”.
It is not surprising that in English the same text signed by Rooney spread on social networks even earlier - and even then became very popular. For example, one of publications on Facebook received about 141,000 reposts. An essay that is in the English-speaking segment of the Internet known entitled “Long Live Mature Women”, quite similar in spirit to reflections journalist within his column.
However, Rooney is not the author of this ode. Back in 2003, it was actively distributed by email, and The Baltimore Sun correspondent Susan Reimer, who received one of these letters, decided to ask a colleague if he had anything to do with the viral text. “It annoys me that someone puts my name on something I didn’t write,” stated then Rooney. And when asked whether he shared the author’s sympathy for women over forty, he answered: “Not really.”
Two years later Rooney back on this topic on 60 Minutes: “A mawkish collection of commentaries called 'Andy Rooney on Older Women' has gone viral. I was pleased that many people wrote about their disbelief in my authorship.”
The original text appeared in 2001 on the website suddenlysenior.com, created specifically for older people and still operating today. This resource is intended to replace their favorite newspapers for older people, entertain readers and provide valuable advice on medicine and everyday life. In 2003, Frank Kaiser, founder of the site and author of the acclaimed essay, recalled: “I wrote this text in 2000, but a year ago it started coming back to me via email signed by Andy Rooney... I wrote to him, joked about it, and he called me. You know, he’s just as grumpy on the phone as he is on the air.”
Note that Kaiser's original essay, entitled In Praise of Older Women, does not match the viral texts in English and Russian verbatim. It contains some thoughts that are missing in publications on social networks, and vice versa.
Thus, the viral text was first posted on an American website more than two decades ago. Soon, in the English-language segment of the Internet, its slightly modified version began to be groundlessly attributed to a popular TV presenter in the United States, and only in 2014 did the translation begin to circulate on the Runet signed by Nagiyev.
Cover photo: GoodFon.com
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