beauty standard slander: act your age
“ELEVEN DOLLARS PER UNIT?!” I exclaimed this in a mocking tone to Mom, because I actually found it kind of funny. A Metro bus advertised this rate on its backside. Mom and I were driving behind it, and all three of us bustled down Sunset Boulevard under the blazing Los Angeles sun.
If it wasn’t clear, this was an advertisement for botox. Yes, I said it. Forget the U.S. dollar–there are only three true LA currencies: units, followers, and grams. Mom shook her head in disbelief. She had never seen an ad for this cosmetic procedure, let alone in such a casual spot like the back of a public city bus. But she was only visiting the city.
I would be more shocked too if I hadn’t been living in the city. However, this wasn’t my first encounter with botox’s promotion because duh, it’s everywhere in LA! I remember one time, I walked into a yoga studio in Hollywood and started chatting with one of the instructors. Suddenly her friend came up behind her and asked how her botox was feeling since she just got her injections a few days ago. She began to answer him, but then turned to me to say, “I’m sorry that you’re hearing about this just after meeting me.” Her friend waved her apology away, “Oh, don’t be silly,” and then looked at me and beamed, “This is your welcome to Hollywood!”
Obviously in a city riddled with elites who bask in the public eye’s gaze, cosmetic and anti-aging procedures are a go-to. But why is this the case? Why are some of the most influential figures of our time so obsessed with maintaining a youthful appearance despite their bodies’ natural desire to age?
Even though Los Angeles is America’s botox capital, anti-aging glorification is not contained solely within its walls. I was recently watching this nationally broadcasted episode of Celebrity Family Feud. In the Fast Money Round, there was a prompt, “Name something a supermodel doesn't want to see when she looks in the mirror.” It turned out that the #1 answer was “wrinkles and saggy skin.”
And I don’t know about you guys, but while I was growing up, I was exposed to so much stigma around aging from the adults in my life. Like if the adults in your life ever used Lancôme anti-aging serums–or if they ever made blatantly dread-filled jokes about their first gray hairs (which they then immediately proceeded to pluck or dye away)–or if they ever said that it’s rude to ask people for their actual age because it’s considered offensive to suggest that someone could ever be such a thing–then you know what I’m talking about.
Growing up, I was told by so many people to wear sunscreen, but not because of health precautions, but because freckles and sun spots would make me look older than I should. I was told to not raise my eyebrows too much, even if I was expressing emotion, because my forehead would wrinkle sooner. I was told to moisturize my neck and hands because “necks and hands always show real age, even when your face doesn’t.” I hope that I don’t come across as a tip sharer because I don’t think that these are tips. I think that these are doses of irrational fear being passed from generation to generation.
I won’t lie, eventually all of this talk got to me. Two years ago, I went to my doctor’s office and inquired about botox–omg at age 20, I know. The doctor responded that if I received botox, then I would need to get a refill after six months. From there, I would need to get a refill in less than six months. And this would be the pattern until I reached a point where the refills were either going to be ineffective or damaging. I knew that a life of relying on injections (toxin or toxic lol) was one that I didn’t want for myself, so upon hearing this, I shut the whole potentially-getting-botox operation down.
I may be too young right now to speak on this because I haven’t experienced enough aging to get to the point of absolutely resenting it, but right now, I don’t really have a fear of aging. My only fear concerning aging is that I will give into the murmurs that I have heard all my life and begin to resent my own body for what it’s naturally built to do.
This is no shade to anyone that dyes their grays or receives anti-aging treatments. I totally respect it and understand that youthfulness is a glaring standard of beauty within our culture. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that beauty standards are forever changing and within humanity's control.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that adulthood has many intimidating aspects: financial stability, independence, health, etc. I feel very passionate about removing “the look of aging” off of my list of worries. I want to smile widely and frown intensely and freely express every emotion in between without a nagging thought that I'm "ruining my face."
In Emma Chamberlain’s podcast, Anything Goes, she says this blurb about aging that resonates with me… “Aging is a beautiful thing and getting wrinkles–your skin starting to become looser or saggy or whatever–that’s a beautiful thing. That’s a trophy [...] of your years on this earth.”
Maybe now is the time that we can all begin to change our perspective to one that's more similar to Chamberlain’s. Maybe now is when we see aging as an accomplishment, or as our bodies’ way of sharing their own memories with the world. Maybe soon, models can look in the mirror without fear of who looks back at them because we will normalize the beautiful biological phenomenon that is aging.
I am ready to see a movement towards allowing ourselves to age gracefully and in peace because not only is it better for our overall mental health and well-being, but it is better for the overall mental health and well-being of generations to come.
That's all for today. Thanks for tuning in and I'll catch you guys l8r!<3
