Madonna's lip. She posted this pic on Facebook with the caption "cut my lip from rehearsing Girl Gone Wild"
BY MIA FREEDMAN When Madonna posted photos of her puffy mouth on Facebook last week, claiming she’d injured herself during rehearsals, this is what I thought: “Pah! That’s so not an injury! She’s just had too much lip filler! How brilliantly Madonna, to strike preemptively so that when her new mouth is snapped by the paparazzi, her alibi is already in place.”
I felt both smug and annoyed by this idea. Smug because I’d possibly ‘caught’ out the canniest self-marketer of our generation. Annoyed, because I’m tired of celebrities pretending they’re just born that way. Although I can certainly see the pressure they face.
Take a moment to kiss the ground and appreciate not being a woman in the public eye. Because there isn’t a moment when they can just….be. Let alone do. A famous woman’s appearance always comes into play whether she’s a news reader or the prime minister.
In the snarky narrative of gossip, she must be either too fat or too thin, trying too hard or not trying hard enough, desperately clinging onto her youth or letting herself go, suspiciously young or old and haggard. In other words, lose or lose. Sledge or ridicule.
It’s no accident that our most iconic beauties tend to die in their prime, immune to aging. Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, Natalie Wood, Jayne Mansfield, Grace Kelly, Talitha Getty, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy…these are the enduring images of beauty in Western culture. And interestingly, they all died before injectibles went mainstream.
Compare that to 80s and 90s celebrities like Joan Collins, Linda Grey, Bo Derek, Linda Kozlowski, Debbie Harry, Christie Brinkley, Elle Macpherson, Madonna, Cher and Demi Moore who seem determined to stop time at the peak of their fame which was invariably in their 20s or 30s.
What’s new though, is the ‘gotcha’ smugness and schaedenfreude suddenly swarming around celebrities who never used to be challenged about their miraculously youthful appearance. Now it’s all: Has she had work or hasn’t she?
Ashley Judd copped this recently after appearing on TV with a ‘puffy’ face and becoming the instant target of “gloating, self-righteous condemnation” by media outlets and other women. She wrote about it this week, claiming the frenzy of speculation about cosmetic surgery was “blatantly gendered, ageist, and mean-spirited” and an insult to all women.
Blogger Kerri Sackville has a different view. She thinks we’re simply jack of being fed lies by celebrities who insist their youthful looks come from “nothing more than ‘sunscreen’, ‘good genes’, ‘drinking lots of water’ or ‘an organic diet’. We gaze upon these miracles of nature and think, ‘what is wrong with us?‘ Why can’t we look like them? We eat well. We drink lots of water. We use sunscreen. And yet our foreheads still move and our necks are getting crinkly and we keep looking older and they are frozen in time.”
Kerri concludes, “the speculation about Ashley Judd’s puffy face has less to do with pure spite, and more to do with us trying to deconstruct the myth of ageless beauty, so that us normal people in the trenches can stop feeling like failures for actually getting old.
Yes, it is odd that some women are looking younger as they grow older. It’s not natural. And yet it’s become normal.
As far as I can tell, there are only two ages for female celebrities: Dame Judi Dench and 30. At Dame Judi’s end, it’s pretty lonely. Just her and Betty White. At the other end, it’s gridlock with everyone from Courtney Cox (47) to Lindsay Lohan (26) visually colliding at the age of 30.
This is weird. Especially when – like me – you fall into the twilight zone between 30 and Betty White.
I’m not suggesting we all stop dying our hair, fighting wrinkles or stop wearing make-up. Nor am I condemning anyone who has any kind of cosmetic procedure. Hell to the no.
I’m just thinking about The Emperor’s New Clothes and wondering if this new surgically enhanced, digitally altered aesthetic is a bit bonkers. Not to mention stressful and expensive.
Use of non-invasive cosmetic surgery techniques like Botox, lip-fillers and and laser surgery has doubled in Australia since 2008 and now costs around $644 million a year. A YEAR.
Will this new ‘has-she-or-hasn’t-she’ obsession dissipate as surgery becomes even more common? Will someone’s cosmetic surgery soon be as unremarkable as the fact they’re not a natural blonde?
I hope not. I hope we keep noticing – although with empathy and compassion rather than spite. Because it feels like the goal posts keep shifting and the parameters for what is considered attractive (or even acceptable) keep narrowing. Soon nobody will fit through them except computer generated images.
I shudder to think that injectibles are now baseline upkeep after the age of 25. Or that a surgically altered face is the new normal.
Because at what point do you go from looking ‘amazing for your age’ to just looking a bit…odd. And then really odd. And then Jocelyn Wildenstein.
My personal solution is to ignore Hollywood and take my inspiration from women closer to home. Women like Lisa Wilkinson, Georgie Gardener, Tracey Grimshaw, Natalie Barr, Melissa Doyle and Rachel Ward. None has ever looked better than she does now. And they are all as smart and accomplished as they are beautiful.
Lisa Wilkinson, 51
Comments
164 Comments so far
As someone from a culture in which almost no one uses any cosmetic procedures and botox, and a culture in which men don’t look away from their wives because of how they look or how old they look, this is all so superficial to me.
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As I age I become one of the “invisible people”, that is a woman who is over 60. It is disheartening to see all these perfect women advertising products and procedures to stall ageing. My husband says that it is women competing with women, I ask why would women do that, I suggest it is for the attention of our menfolk. It seems that it is expected that men enjoy “eye candy”, have affairs and sex outside marriage once they tire of the woman they say they love, so no wonder ever younger women are rushing to look “perfect”. Where is the person in tis and not just the casing?
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Mia – your last paragraph really disappoints me – it contradicts the main body of your column and like your other reader am a little insulted. I used to really enjoy reading you….
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I cannot believe that Mia truly thinks that Lisa, Tracy have not had any work done? It’s insulting to my intelligence. Say what you want about their achievements but no work? Are you joking? I want to know how even with just Botox Lisa w’s eyebrow is so ridiculously high. Good genes?
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Hi, Tracy, Lisa and a few others on the tele have all had work done. You don’t reach that age, look that preserved naturally. Marcia Hines and Olivia others. Olivia’s has become way too obvious over the years.
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Sounds like after reading this contradiction piece that Mia is a bit of a fence sitter.
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At least Mia hasnt succumbed to the pressures of keeping her ageing at bay such as botox, fillers and dentistry. She looks her age and good on her. Nothing wrong with looking and being middle age. Go Mia !
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Any 40 year old with a hollywood white smile has had work. Of course she denies this.
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Just a brief thought. This article reminded me of the song “Eternal youth is worth a little suffering”, from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard! Wonderfully ironic song about various beauty procedures / whatever. I can only dimly remember the lyrics, but I remember that it’s filled with irony. I remember thinking it made a very good point, last time I listened to it carefully a few years ago!
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Just found the lyrics: http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/sunset_boulevard_1994_cast_recording_soundtrack/eternal_youth_is_worth_a_little_suffering-lyrics-65707.html
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No- it’s a crime to BE older than …! As a woman the cloak of invisibility starts to descend around 45, unless you are genetically blessed Progressively affects personal and professional lives until around 55 when you become effectively unemployable, regardless of qualifications or experience. Ageism and misogynism is alive and well in Australia.
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Mia, your inspirational women – ‘None has ever looked better than she does now’….they may be your colleagues and they may be nice people but it is SO obvious that Mel Doyle, Tracy Grimshaw and Lisa Wilkinson have had ‘work’ on their skin/teeth/lips etc. They do look great for their ages but why pretend that they are ‘all natural’? I agree with the earlier comments that your article doesn’t make sense – that last paragraph is one big contradiction.
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This drives me literally insane, I look young for my age of almost 32. Like people fall over when I say it but how am I ‘suppose’ to look. Honestly everyone’s perception of ag/ or how we look is so screwed up. that i get a really hard time for looking the way i do but people are off spending how much a year trying to hmmm oh thats right younger. Its a joke!!
At Least I can just think of all the money I’m saving!!!
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Hold the phone…Lisa Wilkinson is 51?!? I had absolutely no idea…she looks amazing for any age though.
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That is why women have work done. To maintain and enhance their look. People working in the media , its a given they will indulge. So I dont get this article, Mia almost criticizes these women for indulging, but tells us she admires & looks up to her friends in the industry who also have the same procedures. This article does not make anybloody sense.
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Sigh. Yet another vapid piece. Mia, it’s getting old (no pun intended). Look, we see so many of these silly articles on whether skinny celebrities cause anorexia, the terror of ageing, who’s doing what with plastic surgery… We could bypass all this crap if women just cottoned on to the fact that we can opt out of this bullshit anytime we want. I can quite honestly say I never compare myself to models or celebrities because it isn’t the real world. It’s fiction. And unless you work in television or marketing or some other image-obsessed industry, it doesn’t actually need to be a blip on our radars. It really, really doesn’t.
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And why is it ok for women to make moral value judgements on other women based on whether they’ve had “work” done? That is NOT feminist.
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Diana you are very lucky. If only every other woman was able to take the same approach as you. Sadly, that’s not possible as every mission Australia shows that poor body image is the #1 concern for young women and men.
Higher than suicide, unemployment, depression, the environment.
So it’s a shame you feel that this – and every other piece we’ve published and will continue to publish – is vapid.
But we feel its relevant. And important.
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Actually, I had anorexia and bulimia for ten years. But I can very honestly say it had little to do with media images. Now, obviously anecdata doesn’t count for much, but for what it’s worth I do have a profound knowledge of what it’s like to have body image issues.
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Agree – eating disorders at the extreme end are caused by factors far more complex than imagery. But poor body image and the resulting depression or yoyo dieting or self harm (or just feeling like shit!) that can result CAN be connected to other factors like those I wrote about…..
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And I will add that paying lip service to body issues when a huge percentage of your articles are on who’s wearing what, who’s had work done, who’s dating whom… More than a little hypocritical, I’d say. You’re part of the problem.
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Im sorry but I dont understand your bitterness toward Mia here.Her atricles are always for the well being of women and in particular young women who are vunerable.The truth is unlike yourself,young women do compare themselves to models and celebrities.So Mia is their voice as are the other celebrities she noted in the article.These women who use their celebrity for the good of other women deserve credit not condemnation.
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I do agree with you, but your ‘Idols’ are not that clean faced either.
Tracy Grimshaw has recently (It may not be recent, but I noticed it the other night and DAMN!) become very puffy and tight faces and WTF her lips?? Suddenly SCARY.
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I find this topic really interesting, thanks for this Mia, I admire women who don’t use botox and it’s refreshing to see a few that haven’t.
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I hate this discussion. If it’s not men telling us how to look, it’s women. Why shouldn’t celebrities try to hang on to their beauty, after all, isn’t it their Job? Even if it isn’t necessary for our careers, why should the rest of us resign ourselves to growing old, particularly when we’re having all the women who ‘naturally look young’ pointed out to us on a regular basis? Why should we not want to look like them?
My mother, as an olive-skinned health conscious woman, didn’t age, not until she was in her 50′s. I’m white-skinned, close to 40 and I’ve had botox. I don’t regret it at all and will do it again. I’ve worn sunscreen, moisturised, drank water, ate healthy and tried to get enough sleep. If all that is not enough then why shouldn’t I be entitled to more assistance?
If you don’t agree with cosmetic surgery, don’t have it. If you feel the need to point the finger, remember there are very few Jocelyn Wildenstein’s in the world. What she had was an illness, most of us don’t. It’s like comparing the habits of dieting women to anorexia.
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As a 36 year-old woman who has used little more than Olay for the last 20 years, I am right this moment in the grip of a little crisis regarding my appearance. I am now (after not doing so until now) looking my age – and even older than some others my age.
I have an internal battle going on. Half of me wants a new jawline, some lipo on my double chin and a little facelift to stop the sagging, as well as a little ‘something’ to get rid of the frown lines life has given me. I look in the mirror and see a version of myself that I don’t like one bit. She’s old. Guys don’t look at her anymore, she gets noticed less in general. She HATES seeing photos of herself.
The other half of me thinks that it shouldn’t matter – that I love my friends and family no matter what they look like because their beauty in in their creativity, their humour, their wit, their intelligence, their warmth. Surely my looks don’t matter because it’s the essence of me that is loved. I’m smart, successful, a great mother, a loving wife, a fun friend. My looks are irrelevant, and merely are a reflection of my life, and all that I have achieved and experienced (good and bad – frown lines came from the toddler days, I’m sure).
Oh, but what a battle it is. The pressure on women to look good is phenomenal (especially when you’ve always been ‘pretty’ in the past).
I fight it every day, and I can’t wait until the sensible part of me wins and I can stop the fighting. I’ll get there in the end, I just have to hang in there and keep telling myself that I’m better than that, that I don’t need to look 30, I can look whatever age I bloody well like because I’m awesome.
And maybe I’ll eventually actually listen to myself
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It’s great that MM is keeping this issue in the spotlight. Generally speaking, women are portrayed TERRIBLY by the media and advertisers and it’s so important that we do everything we can to try and arrest this ‘normalisation’ of wrinkle-free faces and stretched bodies.
But I can’t help but think…if you’re going to take this line – that we don’t want digitally or surgically altered faces/bodies to become the norm – surely you have to call bullshit on the whole concept of botox and plastic surgery, and not hold up those who’ve clearly had it as positive role models for the portrayal of women in the media? Because it seems to be becoming more and more the norm among the famous over-30s set, you know? This often seems to bring up the question of where the line should be drawn, and for me, it seems pretty clear (I just can’t equate hair colour or some carefully-applied concealer with a process that involves a needle or a scalpel).
I don’t mean to be argumentative – just wanted to add to the debate, because I think it’s an important one. Thanks again for keeping it going.
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Hey Rochelle, I was not holding anyone up to anyone but myself. You have to pick your own role models or beauty models and these are some (not all) of mine.
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Great comment Rochelle.
New Idea and Woman’s Day have been the FBI (female body inspectors) for years, policing which celebrities have had cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures. Yet despite the body police, procedures such as botox and breast enhancements are still on the increase.
I agree with Mia. I don’t think that we should name, shame and blame women in the public eye who have elected to have plastic surgery. Let’s face it, there is already too much focus on women’s appearance, it’s just adding fuel to the fire. Plus, it’s hard to condemn someone for their own beauty pursuits because we all undergo our own pursuits towards beauty – the line is just different for all of us.
But I also agree with you in that we should not uphold women who have had plastic and cosmetic surgery as beauty icons. You can’t be what you can’t see. I think that women who have had plastic surgery set an example. ie. plastic surgery is ‘normal’, ideal beauty is attainable through plastic surgery and plastic surgery is the pathway to fame, money and admiration.
Sometimes I look at my TV screen and feel like we have already lost the battle. Are there any celebrities and models who have not had cosmetic or plastic surgery?
Perhaps as others have suggested the answer is to discuss plastic surgery without condemnation so that celebrities can talk openly about why they had the procedures in the first place ie. get to the cause of the problem. It’s so complex. I don’t know.
One thing I do know for sure is that if beauty hurts we are doing it wrong. Dismembering your body is not normal. I actually think it is a public health problem.
That’s my rant for today!
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You forgot Deborah Hutton. Possibly close to 50 if not already, surgery free and as lovely looking as ever!
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Isn’t she just! I have always loved Deborah, very natural looking!
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Two things:
One: Tracey Grimshaw could not be described as a natural beauty. She’s the epitome of plastic surgery / beauty enhancement gone wrong. Google photos of her from years ago and she looked, well, normal.
Two: I saw Melissa, Natalie and Samantha Armytage from channel 7 today at the melb qantas club lounge and they are simply gorgeous. No Botox, no collagen and no fillers. So pretty and natural and bubbly and normal. I remember seeing an artirecessed time ago that described Samantha as ‘big’. Ummmmm, she’s not what I’d describe as big in real life, her skin glows, she looks incredibly healthy and is probably a size 10/12….
Ironically I also saw chris uhlman from channel 2 and he was small!
No judgement…
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Google Melissa from 9 yrs ago and tell me if you still think she has had no botox or fillers.
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Lol, Chris used to be a client at the salon I worked at years ago, he is small! But I remember he was always lovely!
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I remember my mum commenting on how old a popular media personality looked when she appeared on tv one night. I said to my mum that she looked pretty normal for someone in their late 50s who had spent a lifetime in the sun and who hadn’t had any ‘work’ done.
The scary thing for me about this conversation was that it clearly demonstrated that our perception of aging is slowly being altered to the point that we don’t recognize what someone who has aged normally without ‘work’ looks like.
By all means do what you want to yourself, but what is wrong with saying “this is what 50 with a facelift looks like”. Be out and proud I say, and please stop messing with our perception of aging by avoiding the truth.
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We are already not noticing, Mia, becoming conditioned to how normal it is to look fake. Only 10 years ago we stared, horrified, by images of Jocelyn Wildenstein’s extreme plastic surgery wondering how anyone could think that was an improvement. Funny how she doesn’t look so strange to us anymore…
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That’s what terrifies me. How ‘normal’ is slowly (quite quickly actually) being recalibrated to mean something totally different…..
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Absolutely. For me the single biggest example of this is nose jobs. An average sized nose looks big now that everyone on TV has little pixie things, men and women. There’s a site called something like ‘good plastic suregry’ which gives an interesting other perspective to the plastic surgery horrors we’re used to. And you can see the subtle, natural-looking alterations people like Halle Berry, Charlie Sheen, etc have had.
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we all love a great photo of ourselves. sometimes you get a shot that somehow loses pounds off you. sadly, you know it is just a great shot and you don’t look that hot. these celebs must live with that EVERY day. i personally think that would suck in a pretty major way. maybe that just becomes a vicious cycle?
i am dreading it when my friends start to look younger each year as i age normally. that is going to be hard. but i can’t help but look at people who have lots of work done as being pretty insecure, so i suppose i should feel for them.
i just like to remember that whole bum or face thing, i think i’ll go for the face over the bum.
don’t stop writing about this mia. i need to hear it. for anyone that doesn’t, just flick to the next story and be grateful that this doesn’t get you down. you are lucky.
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I think this culture is more then just appearance. It is also about they way we see ourselves in society.
Hollywood stars have always had work done as long as I can remember. Older generations just did not relate to stars as people on the same page.
Sure they looked fine but we did not see a need to look the same as they were from a different planet and had a different set of goal posts.
Now I think reality T.V and media saturation make the gap between their lives an ours closer.
Also now we are much less class conscious- we all feel equal to film stars and the rich and famous. Not exactly a bad thing but a change I. The way we see our selves. My parents did not hold them selves up to such ideals as they considered them selves working class thus such expectations were not so important.
So I guess the aspirational aspect of each of us and peer pressure has moved the goal posts again.
I suspect our kids will be the new flower children and rebel against it all in 20 years time
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Mia Mia Mia…. Can you write an article without contradiction ?
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Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous.
There are SO many contradictions in life. In mine anyway. I don’t live in a black and white landscape. My views and my thoughts are ever evolving and changing and adapting to the changing world around me.
So get used to it.
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It kills your credibility Mia
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Gosh they change at the drop of a hat, you havent even finished your article and you have contradicted yourself.
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Mia you must be a fence sitter!
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Are Anonymous and Guests not welcome anymore? Just asking? You didn’t seem too pleased when you answered the last Anonymous quote.
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This article made me think of the following quote from the movie ‘The First Wives Club”:
“There are only three ages for women in Hollywood; “babe”, “District Attorney”, and “Driving Ms. Daisy”.
— Elise, The First Wives Club (1996)
Hollywood and the celebrity culture it’s spawned have seriously warped our views of beauty and desirability, I think. Instead of taking our cues from America though, why can’t we embrace the approach to life of French women, who exude a seductive confidence regardless of age. I’ve just finished reading “French Women Don’t Sleep Alone”, which is about the eternal allure of French women. The author (Jamie Cat Callan) says the French expression ‘etre bien dans sa peau’ (to feel good in one’s skin) neatly summarises the way French women present themselves to the world; with a confidence that stems from a certainty that they are desirable and they are worthy of attention.
She emphasises the lengths to which French women go to preserve and enhance their intellect – education being very highly prized in French society – and the links in that culture between beauty and brains. Politics is sexy. The ability to hold a good conversation is sexy. Participating in a feisty political discussion at a dinner party? Very sexy.
Which is not to say that French women don’t take care of their bodies and their clothes and their skin – they do. It’s just that their grooming is both impeccable and understated, and a lifelong effort, not something they turn to at ‘a certain age’ in order to reverse the effects of too much partying and sun worship.
I’d really like to believe that the goalposts of what is considered attractive aren’t actually narrowing. Maybe the current lack of diversity on our tv screens has contributed to a sense of visual groundhog day, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyday women have to feel pressured to participate in what is, after all, a giant money-making industry for the cosmeceutical companies.
Either that or I’m moving to France.
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Yes, when I was lucky enough to be in Paris and France last year, you see this everywhere! Not particularly attractive women (by the ‘standard’), ageing naturally (‘badly’ by the ‘standard’) who look great. It was quite inspiring and I try to draw on it when I feel the pressure. They were immaculately dressed and groomed which helps of course.
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Agree about finding French women inspirational – when I was in France I was bowled over by how beautifully turned-out the average woman in the street was. I found all of them wildly attractive, because they had a quiet self-possession. They defied age, in some ways, because their beauty was not age-dependent. It helps that French men are so charming and openly admiring, and so well-groomed themselves. The ideal of beauty appears to run in the veins. Do wish they wouldn’t smoke so much however!
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Sometimes when I hear a celebrity who has obviously had some work done, denying that she’s had some work done, I raise my eyebrows…..which is more than the celebrity can raise.
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You’ve altered the title of the article ! As mentioned in my original comment, I know of many famous women over the age of thirty.
Addressing the new title…is it a crime to look as if you’re over thirty ? If it was and they locked you up for it there would be a few of you sharing the cell with me !
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Mia, you are a person of authority in the media. If someone like you can’t help but buy into the beauty myth, then what hope is there for the rest of us?
*wanders off, shaking head sadly*
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I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on you, btw. Beauty obviously matters. To paraphrase someone whose name escapes me: Beauty matters. Who’s ever been complimented on their spleen?
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For goodness sake, Mia Freedman is not a person of authority in the media. She has a blog full of useless garbage most days e.g. Zoe getting ready for the Logies and writes a Sunday column that very few read. This blog is largely for the 25-late 30′s. So Mia, calm down, very few would think you were a person of authorith in the media. a blog is not the media.
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I’m a person of authority in the media perhaps but I’m as susceptible to the bombardment of imagery as any other woman. That’s why I feel a responsibility not to just swallow it but to point it out….
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You are one of the few in the Australian media who point it out, without being bitchy.
And guess what: I was going to ask Are The Men Doing It question – and then I remembered my bloke has had his back hair lasered….
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All the women she mentions Lisa Wilkinson, Georgie Gardner, Tracey Grimshaw are all full of botox. KAK’s face doesn’t move at all and neither does Lisa Wilkinson’s. They haven’t aged naturally. Let’s not use them as good examples, they’re not. Even young women like Zoe spending hours under a ‘ray lamp’ to give her colour before the Logies is horrifying and yet you promote it. None of the women you promote are from the ‘real world’
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I agree, I think Lisa looks great but I will eat my arms off if she has not had some smoothing, botox or whatever done.
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So true, these are the types of discussions we need to keep having.
We live in a society which places a huge emphasis on women’s looks yet at the same time women are not supposed to let it slip that they focus too much on their appearance for fear of being labelled vain, shallow or conceited. Mia is right it is all bonkers
I respect women who are happy and confident in their own skin and who do not focus too much on their appearance. After all life is too short and it all fades away in the end, right? I actually sort of envy you. But the reality is that for a lot of women including myself, we have at some time in our lives cared very much about the way we look.
I think it is sort of understandable that with a narrow definition of beauty in western culture and advances in plastic and cosmetic surgery we have seen an increasing number of women going under the knife to achieve ‘the look’. I have not had plastic surgery, but I certainly understand the pressure that some women feel to conform.
Like Mia, I also worry that boob jobs and botox will be considered normal in years to come.
Vanity is not the enemy.
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We know that mothers are buying daughters boob jobs for their 18th birthday. It will become the norm; and that’s terrifying…
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Really? I haven’t heard of this anywhere outside of celebrity gossip before.
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Cher? Seriously? She’s one of the worst offenders of someone trying to look continuously 30!
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The gallery was one of women of all different ages – no morality policing in there!
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Aaah I misunderstood, thank goodness! A little scared there for a second…
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I saw an Oprah episode with aged supermodels, such as Christie Brinkley, and while they didn’t use the words ‘botox’ or ‘fillers’, they did use the words ‘good dermatologist’. I appreciated their honesty.
I don’t think people who have had cosmetic procedures should have to own up to all of them – what happened to privacy? But perhaps they could say something like what the supermodels in that Oprah episode said.
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More celebrities? Surely there are plenty of remarkable women not in the public spotlight who should be celebrated? I’m sure i’m not the only one who’d like to read about them
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Can we also remember that the women Mia names – Lisa Wilkinson, Geogie Gardner etc – have the benefit of spending an hour under the care of professional hair and make up artists each morning also… not to mention having their clothes picked for them if they desire.
That’s fine – it’s part of their job – but any of us who look to television or film for examples of how we too should look is going to end up beating their head against a wall. I’d suggest most people could look 5 years younger if they had their hair and make up professionally done every day.
We must stop holding up these women as ‘real people’ in terms of appearance. They’re real if you bump into them at the shops or know them socially – not if you’re watching them via the ‘magic’ of television.
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It’s interesting to me that quite a few of the commenters below perceived that I was saying that women who have not had any ‘work’ have some moral advantage over those who had.
I didn’t say that.
I simply expressed bewilderment with the way everyone in Hollywood seems to look 30. And that there seems to be so little room for famous women (in Hollywood, hopefully not here) to look anything other than…..30.
The women I named at the end of this column are all women I admire. I think they’re beautiful, smart and talented. None of them look as young as they did a decade or two ago and yet none of them have looked better in my opinion.
I know it’s complex. There are so many issues at play. Are women ‘obliged’ to disclose every alteration they’ve made to their appearance? As I said above, it’s lose-lose for women in the public eye. Either they’re lying or setting a bad example by telling the truth.
Trying too hard or not trying hard enough.
I don’t have the answer. I don’t know if there is one. But I think we should keep talking about it with compassion and understanding rather than snark.
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But looking 35 is ok, or is looking 45 ok when your mid 50s?. I think the article does read like you have a ‘line’. And maybe that is just a function of your own personal taste which is fine, but we know that always illicits a strong reaction from your audience!
I am guessing that a lot of women who protest about no plastic or cosmetic surgery (like Susan Sarandon) have in fact had it (like Susan Sarandon now fesses up to). Helen Mirren for instance, I am guessing (on a well educated basis) is the same.
Now I have NO problem with that at all … each to their own. I just don’t know why we differentiate (in a negative way) someone trying to look 30 from someone trying to look better.
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Hey MissKB,
There’s nothing ‘wrong’ with any of it really. Each to her own. But to me, this is about more than personal choice. How have so many women got the same message – that they need to look as young as possible?
You’re right – it’s very different trying to look 30 if you’re 35 than if you’re 53.
I just can’t help thinking it’s all a bit bonkers……and I include myself in that! I’m as vain and insecure as the next person. I’m certainly not holding myself up as some paragon of moral virtue!
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“I simply expressed bewilderment with the way everyone in Hollywood seems to look 30. And that there seems to be so little room for famous women (in Hollywood, hopefully not here) to look anything other than…..30.”
I got that. It was a clear point to me. That’s why I posted the link to the year-zero face. I think that’s saying a similar thing. That everyone wants a year-zero face. MM picked 30 as year-zero and other reports/surveys choose ages between 31 and 36. Consensus seems to be that women – older and younger than this age range – try to look in their early-30s. I didn’t pick up any ‘line’ re the methods by which women do this e.g. surgery. Just that they do (because there is societal pressure to do so).
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Meanwhile, what the is Kim Basinger wearing?
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Just look at the hands, hands don’t lie! I hope I don’t feel the need to change my appearance so drastically when I get older.
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According to Shakira, it’s the hips that don’t lie.
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I always find the “look at the hands” comment interesting.
But I’m not complaining, I like my hands!
I think hands are just as misleading: While my skin is good, I probably look my age. On the other hand (pun intended) the skin on my hands is really wrinkly and old – always has been. So while I look 48, my hands probably look about 65
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Interesting article, although, looking at your photo’s presented I would say that very few of these lovely ladies have not had some sort of treatment..
Up and til recently I would have seriously considered a “treatment” of some sort, but being a role model to my 2 daughters, had me re-consider it all… Do I want to teach them that it is important for a women to look like she is 35 when she is actually over that? or do I want to teach them acceptance, and that what happens as we get older, our body changes. This article this points to an issue of women (and men too)not accepting one big thing “that humans age” …It is something that can not be avoided..
I think to myself, what would Madonna look like in 20 years. I wonder if she will still look the same, or if age will catch up with her? I only suppose time will tell.
So, if all these people feel that they have these ‘treatments’ who is telling them they have to look this way?? I am not so sure it is the public? so, who else would it be??
I think “would I still buy Madonna’s album’s if she looked more like a 50 year old” hmm, and then, I think what does a 50 year old look like these days.. I am not sure.. my thoughts of a 50 year old, do not resemble any of the images above?? maybe times have changed, face creams are more advanced. as I think here, I am more confused than ever… maybe I should take a picture of myself now, and one when I turn 50, and see the difference..
The one thing that I do know, is that I want to teach my daughters that accepting who you are and that you body changes over your life is important, and what you have inside you is way more important to show this world.
http://www.iamnotmyclothes.wordpress.com
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i once heard a comment to the effect that in years to come you will be able to tell the poor from the rich in that the poor will age
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Lisa Wilkinson is 51?! She looks amazing. Mia, thanks for putting into words exactly the thoughts going through my mind. A bit like the previous article on supermodels, it’s important to remember what goes into looking as good as they do. I’m not adverse to the idea of PS, but am not interested in looking….odd. The best examples of “work done” are those that aren’t blatantly obvious and DO keep you kind of wondering……just wish they didn’t all pretend they were born that way!
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Mia you have to be kidding, majority of these closer to home women you have chosen to highlight to be put on a pedestal, have clearly had “work” done. Why do you feel it ok to judge the “celebrities” in hollywood for lying about their appearance, but you feel ok to “lie” or ignore the fact that these women also have had work done! Tracey grimshaw, her lips should say it all, Lisa wilkinson, her neck says it all.
I am not against plastic surgery, but dont try and tell us these women are aging gracefully. Ridiculous!
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I agree, I remember a few years ago when Tracy appeared looking very obviously refreshed around the eyes and mouth. She became very huffy when asked about it. I like the fact that Kerri Anne was very open about her surgery and I thought that hers looked quite nice.
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I’d disagree. Not every famous woman looks thirty.
Off the top of my head I can name about twenty.
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I haven’t read the other comments so apologies if this has been said.
I just read an article about a woman who was in a plane crash and has horrific burns- she has had 20 operations on her face… she says about plastic surgery “I hear people talking about wanting it and I think- Just be grateful you HAVE a nose”
That struck a chord with me, and I’m not anti-plastic surgery. But yes we nit pick so much, why not be happy we have lips, and noses
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What’s wrong with having a bit of ‘work’ done?
I couldn’t give a crap if the newsreaders (as discussed below) have had work done. In fact, if they’re still keeping us guessing with their ‘natural’ beauty, I want the name of their cosmetician!
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Does anyone else feel like certain Hollywood stars used to be one age, and now years later, their published ages are only 1 or 2 years older than they were 5+ years ago.
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Yes 10 years ago Suzie Wilks was 3 years old than me, but then a few years ago she was 3 years younger than me. Today she is 1 year younger.
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Blame the journalists – not the stars.
If anyone’s ever had an article published about them (as many people have – even if it’s just in the local paper), they’ll know that journalists always tend to screw up one or two ‘facts’.
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It was wonderful to see this article in the Hobart Mercury yesterday. A fantastic start to Sunday morning.
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This article reminds of of the one of photo shoping written by Mia a few months back. She is against photo shopping, but when her friend is photo shopped to the hilt on the front cover of a magazine it is ok. Here Mia talks about women who get work done, how it has become an obsession and how it is the ” norm ” and sounds disappointed about it all. However in the next breath looks up to women her friends and colleagues who have had the exact same procedures done. Contradiction much..
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I agree. I am not sure what her point is. Don’t look 30 but ok to do it and look better, but not 30? She is ambiguous here.
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I think it must be very hard if a woman has been a celebrated beauty to start to lose that. I’ve always been quite normal (average) so my life and career haven’t revolved around what I look like, sure I’d rather not be getting a bit saggy and going grey at 43 but it’s not going to impact on my life that much. Imagine if you’d actually been famous for your beauty and now that was fading and there were beauties in their 20s coming along? I can understand why these woman would want to try to hold back time. It would be easier to be less beautiful and aim for elegance and style cause that lasts.
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36 is the “year zero face” apparently -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/16/year-zero-face-plastic-surgery
Or 31 when women feel most attractive -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1295802/Age-31–Is-woman-peak-appeal.html
So yeah, somewhere in your early 30s is the age everyone wants to look. I’d argue Judy Dench’s look works because we’re unfamiliar with what she looked like in her 30s. Similar to male actors like Geoffery Rush who came on the film scene later and we don’t compare them to their younger selves. Like actors like Brad Pitt who made their name partly on the back of their looks. Though admittedly women suffer more by the standard.
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Mia could we have a column other than something about women and their bodies. As you keep saying, we are more than that. I’m tired of these kinds of posts on MamaMia which then just seem to attract a whole of criticism from women to other women.
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Yes Mia I love Georgie, and Lisa Wilkinson too, however lets be honest here, all the girls you admire, being tv presenters, they have all had some work done, botox, fillers, cosmetic dentistry… Please dont try and deny this to your audience.
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Did Mia try to deny this? It’s a given that all (female) TV presenters have botox, I once heard someone in the industry say it’s like getting a blow dry – essential. Having said that, none of these ladies look like freaks of nature, to me they still look pretty normal.
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So what is she saying then, subtle is the way to go ? Just like a little photo shopping is ok ? Ok I get it…
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Lisa Wilkinson in no way looks like a ‘normal’ 51 yr old
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I think there can be a vast range of how people look at various ages. When I first met her, Lisa was in her twenties and looked about 16.
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So agree with you, just depends on how much work they have had done, and how good the surgeon is. Lisa has had work and she looks amazing for it.
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Mia you are a hypocryte. To present your friend as just looking good for her age when she has CLEARLY had work done is in direct contadiction of this article. To me the fact that so many commenters think that Lisa looks like a normal healthy 51 r old is a very good example of the perception
distortion you say you are against. This alarms me.
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Exactly!!
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This is why Mia Freedman is a contradiction
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