We’ve all heard of the mid-life crisis, characterised by frustration and straddled too far between youth and retirement, almost a no-man’s land of existential dissatisfaction. But recently, another crisis seems to emerge, affecting primarily women and is centred around the quarter-life stage. On one end, there are 19-year-olds, increasingly paranoid of losing their youth (despite only starting it) as they approach 25; on the other end, we have a frantic scramble to prevent aging beyond 25.
In the age of social media, where our digital presence seems to reflect our real-person lifestyle, there is a drive to show the world a pristine, perfect image of ourselves. The aesthetic outings, luxury holidays, lavish lifestyles, and of course the ideal look to complete the picture of perfection. And for women, youth is the foundation for beauty.
Is the desire of looking younger than 25 just a revised edition of the 60’s belief that women have an ‘expiration date’?
There is a growing anxiety to aging, stronger than it ever was before, it seems. We see magical, anti-aging creams and wrinkle-preventative serums advertised to teens. While everybody has insecurities, it is rare to see such a large push to completely erase a process that is natural to humans. Women are familiar with the timeless compliment of “You look so much younger!” as they reveal their true age. With advancements in technology and push from celebrities, cosmetic procedures are rapidly becoming a simple fix-all and not-so-secretive ‘secret’ to staying youthful. Botox, injectables and filler are marketed and sold to women as quick and reliable ways of smoothing out skin and polishing imperfections. But are they the elixir of life from modern technology we think they are?
Cosmetic procedures are without a doubt expensive, and there have been countless news stories of people going to less safe clinics for a cheaper procedure, losing their lives due to side-effects. Unfortunately, associated risks do not deter people. However, this article does not intend to criticise the people choosing to undergo cosmetic alterations. Rather, it is a criticism of the circumstances that lead to a person giving up so much for these procedures.
The normalisation of cosmetic alterations tells us something about the expectation placed upon women. It has long been established that a woman’s beauty dictates the respect she is given in our patriarchal society; it is through that complicity that we are given the space to voice our thoughts. Is the desire of looking younger than 25 just a revised edition of the 60’s belief that women have an ‘expiration date’, with the addition of greedy cosmetic firms exploiting our insecurities to the extent that many women whole-heartedly believe it is inherently a negative thing to show signs of age?
Take the recent Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show as an example: for the first time, women over the age of the terrible forty were on the runway, a showcase that gripped the 2010’s as the epitome of beauty. But they still look 25. For all Victoria’s Secret’s attempt to make their most diverse and inclusive show to date, it can’t help but send the message that an ‘older’ woman can be celebrated, only if she still looks like she is 25.
Perhaps even the linguistic rebrand of ‘plastic surgery’, once kept hushed up and ferociously denied by celebrities, to ‘cosmetic procedures’ shows the shift in acceptance that these are necessary procedures to obtain youth.
A Sylvia Plath poem, ‘The Munich Mannequins’, describes the models in the 1960s as having a “sulphur loveliness“, one that is beautiful, but extremely harmful. This unfortunately still rings true decades later, where the paradoxical standards of beauty are detrimental to women’s physical and mental health. And still, today cosmetic surgery is being labelled on social media as empowering, a way of taking control of her appearance. Even feminist, in some circles.
In some ways, yes, cosmetics are empowering; they are a form of self-expression. I, myself, along with many others like to experiment with make-up styles. Of course, they are sometimes borne out of small insecurities over things we aren’t quite ready to accept, but for the most part, I would like to believe that make-up is an artform. Getting plastic surgery to permanently alter our appearance, however, is a step too far in the wrong direction in my opinion.
After all, can these procedures really be seen as a feminist empowerment, when this was borne out of the need to find a solution to our insecurities, which stem from an impossible standard fabricated by the patriarchal society we live in? For this choice to be feminist and empowering, we must first have the freedom to embrace ourselves, something that is not often afforded to women. Cosmetic surgery is more an exploitation of insecurity profiting off of the conviction that a woman’s standing in society is tied to her youth.