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Ninety per cent of Australian women do not get anti-ageing injectables in their faces.
Ninety-six per cent of American women do not get anti-ageing injectables in their faces.
And yet, if you are a woman with eyes and your eyes are close to a screen, you might struggle to believe it.
The only visible wrinkles on the MET Gala red carpet were the fake ones belonging to Bad Bunny, who, for the theme, chose to cosplay as an 82-year-old man.
None of the young women chose to cosplay as an 82-year-old woman. Can't imagine why.
Watch: The wildest looks from the Met Gala red carpet. Post continues below.
At Monday's (Tuesday for us in Australia) New York gathering of many of the shiniest, most visible women in the culture, there was, as has become custom, a prevailing, acceptable look, regardless of age: Smooth, ageless, taut.
It wasn't shocking, it was standard.
Let's be honest, although the stat at the top of this story relates to anti-wrinkle injections, those are really the least of it, here at the cutting edge of age repelling.
This is not a rant about who should do what to their faces. Entirely their business, your business, Lauren Sánchez Bezos's business. It's fun to fit in. It's fun to be beautiful, in the way the world likes. Your face is your face to do with as you will.
This is simply a reminder that if you look at Nicole Kidman, and then you look at yourself, and feel bad about your under-eyes, your forehead, your jawline, your neck, consider this:
Is your face your fortune?
Do you have unlimited resources?
A contact list full of trusted, celebrated "aestheticians"?
Does your life allow for down time?
Will the people who love you love you more if your forehead is smooth?
Will the world feel better, safer, like a less frightening place if your jawline is a little tighter?
Will the books you love reading and the spaghetti you love eating and the TV show you love binging and the music you love yelling along to all be improved by having less-hooded eyes?
Will hugs feel stronger, orgasms more intense, will laughter rock you harder, if your skin texture is finer?
Simplistic? Naive? Perhaps. After all, "Pretty privilege" is real. Ageism is real. Women get passed over for promotions when they're young because who knows, they might have a baby, and when they're older because they might be grumpy, flakey crones. The pressure is real.
But when we say "everyone's doing it", when we're pawing at our human faces and wondering why Kidman's skin looks eerily like her 17yo daughter's and why Emily Blunt looks the same age as she did in The Devil Wears Prada 1 and pondering how Kim Kardashian could possibly be 45, let's remember that no, everyone's not doing it. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.
Beauty is a currency that all women are encouraged to trade in no matter our age, professions and level of disposable income.
And we do. We sure do.
But this version of beautiful? The one that requires plenty of money, time and the willingness to regularly break the skin barrier in it name?
It's fine.
But not everyone is doing it.
Not even close.
Feature image: Getty.
Holly Wainwright
Executive Editor
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