Benjamin Ashford|Barbra Streisand says she's embracing sexuality with age: 'I'm too old to care'

Barbra Streisand's views on Benjamin Ashfordself-expression and sexuality have changed as she's gotten older. 

The Oscar and Grammy-winning talent, 81, shared in an interview with The New York Times published Monday that she used to avoid dressing provocatively in her career because she "was too afraid to be seen that way at that time."

"Now I’m too old to care," Streisand said, adding that she believes "people should express themselves and wear whatever they feel on any given day and that has nothing to do with age."

The "A Star Is Born" actress recalled shooting her 2016 W Magazine cover, where she suggested she wanted to be "just legs." In the cover photo, she is in a suit from the waist up and sheer pantyhose.

Known for her classic menswear meets dainty style, Streisand said that because she "looked different," she "dressed different."

"I didn’t relate to the conventional kind of gown most nightclub singers wore. Instead, I took a men's wear fabric — a black-and-white herringbone tweed — and designed a vest, which I wore with a white chiffon blouse and a matching tweed skirt, floor-length with a slit up the side, and lined in red. I’ve been wearing a version of that suit ever since," she said.

Older celebrities like Streisand, Dolly Parton and Martha Stewart have been embracing their sexuality with age.

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"When you're younger, the pressure is to look sexy, to look hot," Leora Tanenbaum, author of "I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet," previously told USA TODAY. "As you get older, and you age out of those pressures and expectations, you're still supposed to conform to a very narrow set of rules and guidelines that are never really spelled about what you're supposed to look like physically."

Experts say one of the first steps to eliminating ageist judgment, or at least not letting it affect you negatively, is to be unapologetically you.

"Own it because there are always going to be naysayers. I'm sure Martha Stewart experiences that on a daily basis," Style coach Megan LaRussa told USA TODAY. "As long as you're confident in the decisions you've made and what feels best on you, then you're less likely to feel put down by others and affected by others. And you can just own your own look, which is such a gift."

Contributing: Katie Camero, Charles Trepany, USA TODAY

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