At dinner recently with a group of women friends all aged around the mid-50s, the conversation turned to ageing. How far would you go to feel comfortable with your appearance as the clock ticks? Where is your personal line in the sand? The pressure on women that can blight your life so much in your 20s and younger, comes back with a vengeance around the 50 mark. There’s a tonne of money being made out of telling women how to look good over 50, but the gist of it is aim for Jennifer Aniston, not Miss Marple.
Writer Clare Kermond. Most of my dinner friends were comfortable with hair dye, make up, nice clothes. All had fitness and health routines, but none had gone down the fillers or Botox path.
All of us knew women who regularly got Botox jabs, many younger than us, some with high-profile roles. One talked about colleagues in their mid-20s who were having “preventative” Botox , at about $300 a pop, every 10 to 12 weeks. We commiserated at the pressure to deny the signs of ageing and agreed that the kind of “does she, doesn’t she” scrutiny that so many women are subjected to was unkind and unfair.
One especially kind and thoughtful friend concluded that while she wouldn’t have Botox, she wouldn’t judge others who chose to. Women get enough judgment, right? The double standards are blatant and ridiculous. Clothes, hair, weight, wrinkles, all fair game for women, not so much for men .
Grey hair and smile lines on men are wise and distinguished, even cool. George C.
