January 18, 2011

Women In Plastic Masks

I'm not hugely interested in the Golden Globes. I don't watch a lot of TV, other than Mad Men, Entourage, Chelsea Lately and every episode ever made of Spongebob Squarepants. Oh, and documentaries on women obsessed with big breasts and the history of pole dancing. (What can I say? My husband hogs the remote.)

However, last night, after the kids were in bed, I idly turned on the GG coverage. A close friend of mine was there with her director husband, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of them. I didn't, of course. This was partly because there were a lot of people there, and partly because my eyes kept going out of focus at the sight of Jake Gyllenhaal. My GOD have you seen him? But, er, anyway...

In the past, when I've watched the Globes, I've been in awe of the beauty of the actresses, and the finery of their clothes. (And, when Simon Baker has been in attendance, the gross unfairness of his being married to someone else.) This time, however, my feelings were very different.

I felt a bit sad.

The young women looked great, as young women do. But the older women looked better - freakishly, perfectly better. Like they were wearing tight, plastic masks of the faces they once had.

I KNOW everyone wants to look their best. I KNOW that Botox and fillers are a fact of the world. But this is different. These are women so surgically altered that they don't actually look like real people anymore. There is no expression in their faces. No softness. No lines. They are not the faces of mothers. They are not the faces of friends. They are not the faces of partners, or aunties, or sisters. They are the blank faces of perfect, surgically created beauty.

Now, I'm not arguing against plastic surgery. Everyone should have the choice to do what they want to do with their own bodies, provided that it doesn't hurt anyone else, including themselves. What saddens me is that women feel pressured to do this. Can you imagine the insecurity of these gorgeous, talented, accomplished women that inspire them to go under the knife, presumably repeatedly, in the desperate attempt to look 20 years younger than they are? I feel sorry for them. I truly do.

Yes, these are Hollywood stars. They have money. They have fame. They have success. But at the end of the day, they are women, and I believe that they are terrified. Terrified of losing their looks, which to them equates to losing everything. And I feel sorry for anyone who has to live their life in fear of something so inevitable, and natural, and normal.

We all want to look good. But when the need to look good is so extreme it leads to turning yourself into a plastic mask, it makes me sad.

19 comments:

  1. And the thing is, they don't look 20 years younger. They just look like mature women that have had plastic surgery.

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  2. Great post Kerri. I agree wholeheartedly.

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  3. Kerri, this is so true. I had similar thoughts when watching Parenthood for the 1st time. The women looked so plastic and they were all meant to be late 30s mums. The men of course looked handsome and rugged and natural. Such a double standard. And in my eyes there is nothing attractive about it. Give me laugh lines and personality any day over synthetic barbie doll "perfection".
    Michelle

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  4. I agree, it was very sad, though refreshing to see Annette Benning, she looked wonderful.

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  5. Madonna is the one who gets me (not that she was at the GGs. It would have interfered with her workout schedule.) When I was in my teens she was such a breath of fresh air- so exciting and inspiring- so REAL. Now? Not so much. She looks like a caricature of herself. I don't see her and think "Wow- she looks amazing for a woman of 50!", I think "Wow- it's so sad that a hugely successful and respected woman of 50 feels she needs to go to those lengths to keep herself somehow out there." I'm 8 years off 50 myself, but God grant me the serenity to accept getting there just the way I am.

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  6. Maybe this is why Jacki Weaver didn't win? Because she won't be buy into that Hollywood crap. She looks good for her age, and when she's all done up she doesn't look 64. But in movies, she isn't afraid to show her age. She has expression and character and she can LAUGH, which a lot of those plastic matrons seem unable to do for fear of their scars rupturing.

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  7. I agree. So many women at the GGs - it's strange that they all look so similar. Very sad.

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  8. The saddest part is the only thing they can't change are their eyes. And their eyes are a window into their soul.

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  9. I think its also sad now that women in their 20s get stuff done. They wont ever know how they would have aged naturally in the first place. I wonder if these starlets are actually comfortable in their own skin? That to me is true beauty.

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  10. Blame it on the Hollywood producers and directors, who demand this from their female leads. Give me a natural woman any day, even if she DOES have a wonky ear and a bum finger........

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  11. How many times have you watched a movie with a heavily botoxed star trying to convey some emotion but without a single movement on her face other than her mouth or a blink of the eyes? It's just hilarious, and it's suppose to be acting.

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  12. Couldn't. Agree. More.

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  13. My real concern is this...I wonder where we go from here for society in general. Especially with the younger generation of women coming through now seeing this as some sort of "norm" to uphold in everyday life.

    And isn't it also a tad ironic how many times a Golden Globe or Oscar is won by an actress who plays the character of a down-trodden or unattractive woman.....and how they are publicly praised for being prepared to be filmed looking like they do (which is pretty much what I look like most days of the week!)

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  14. Have been thinking about this very thing. No-one looks like anyone anymore. I saw a pic of Carrie Fisher recently and I can honestly say I couldn't pick her in a lineup!
    What do they see when they look in the mirror, I wonder?

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  15. I don't watch the Golden Globes, mostly because the inane questions that the interviewers ask the celebrities make me want to hurl. But there's a reason why Helen Mirren is one of the few mature women to have been voted in those most sexy lists.

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  16. I so agree! When I look at natural older woman like Helen Mirren and Susan Sarandon I see true beauty. We shouldn't be ashamed of our wrinkles! We earned them, dammit!

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  17. I agree. And I don't look to their current lives or way of living to attribute blame (not that I 'blame' anything, necessarily, but for want of a better word...). I firmly believe it lies in upbringing and even before that, into previous generations. What they have been exposed to and the conditioning they've had plays an important role, possibly overlooked, when we quickly rush to point the finger at producers and directors. I think that's far too easy to lay the blame there and be done with it. But that's just my 2c, I don't live in that world and never will so what would I know?

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  18. And the thing is, they don't look 20 years younger. They just look like mature women that have had plastic surgery.

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