{"id":4521,"date":"2018-06-06T11:37:21","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T15:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2018-06-06T22:20:31","modified_gmt":"2018-06-07T02:20:31","slug":"the-beauty-industry-is-shifting-from-anti-aging-to-anti-anti-aging-so-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2018\/06\/the-beauty-industry-is-shifting-from-anti-aging-to-anti-anti-aging-so-what\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty Industry Is Shifting from Anti-Aging to Anti-Anti-Aging. So What?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times Magazine<\/em> opens every Sunday with an essay about what a given word or phrase reveals about the moment. On September 17, 2017, the word was \u201canti-aging.\u201d The line at the top of the print version read, \u201cAfter years obsessing over \u2018anti-aging,\u2019 our culture finds itself at an impasse. We don\u2019t want to look older\u2014but we don\u2019t want to feel as if we fear it, either.\u201d The catalyst was the announcement in Allure<\/em> magazine\u2019s September 2017 issue that the word has been banned from its pages. Editor-in-chief Michelle Lee commended instead \u201cthe long-awaited, utterly necessary celebration of growing into your own skin\u2014wrinkles and all.\u201d Huzzah!<\/p>\n

But not so fast. As writer Amanda Hess points out in the Times<\/em>,  Allure<\/em> is still promoting products that promise to make women look younger. The next sentence reads, \u201cNo one is suggesting giving up retinol\u201d\u2014God forbid! (It links to an article that begins, \u201cIt’s no secret that retinol ticks practically every box in your anti-aging wish list.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Titled \u201cThe Ever-Changing Business of Anti-Aging,\u201d<\/a> Hess\u2019s piece is a sharp critique of the rebranding of \u201canti-aging\u201d\u2014it\u2019s just another opportunity to sell us the same old stuff. Campaigns have changed, over time, from cautionary tales, to aggressive pitches grounded in \u201cscience,\u201d to appeals to the easy and \u201cnatural.\u201d Notably, attitudes too have shifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the business of fighting aging has consumed the culture, it has produced a secondary aversion, not just to the signs of aging but to the signs that we\u2019re trying to stop the signs of aging,\u201d she observes.<\/p>\n

In other words, we\u2019re moving from anti-aging to anti-anti-aging. Can pro-aging be far behind? Don\u2019t hold your breath. We may nod and agree that we should embrace our wrinkles, Hess concludes, \u201cwhile quietly understanding that none of us, individually, wants to be the one who actually looks old.\u201d<\/p>\n

I do think a more profound shift in the zeitgeist<\/em> is underway, however. As Hess observes, no matter how glossy the images, flawless the celebrities and clever the jargon, they\u2019re an ever-tougher sell. She writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must paper over large and knotty things\u2014our discomfort over our own mortality, our deep-rooted habit of valuing women largely in terms of their attractiveness, our growing sentiment that both ageism and gender roles ought to be things of the past\u2014with a cheery promise that a little face cream will help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appearance matters. Adornment pleases. We each have to age in our own way on whatever terms work for us. As one audience member wrote on her \u201cQuestions for the Speaker\u201d form at my gig in New Hampshire last August, \u201cI am fine with using anti-aging products. Whatever makes you feel and look good, do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But society\u2019s obsession with the way women look is less about beauty than about obedience to a punishing external standard\u2014and about power. When women compete to \u201cstay young,\u201d we collude in our own disempowerment. When we rank other women by age, we reinforce ageism, sexism, lookism and patriarchy.<\/p>\n

In our guts, we know this to be a bad bargain. It sets us up to fail. It pits us against each other. Different forms of discrimination compound and reinforce each other\u2014it\u2019s why the poorest of the poor, around the world, are old women of color. That\u2019s intersectionality<\/a>, a term coined by black feminist Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw that millennials have grown up with, along with the idea that diversity is a good thing and is here to stay.<\/p>\n

In 1970, to believe that women could run Fortune 500 corporations as well as men was a big ask. Fifty years later, gender is a basic criterion for diversity, along with race and sexual orientation. Age isn\u2019t usually on the list \u2014yet. It\u2019s the last socially acceptable prejudice. But when I propose including it, no one says, \u201cThat\u2019s a dumb idea,\u201d or \u201cWhoa, let me get back to you on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have a long way to go on all those fronts, racism in particular. But if the goal is a society where access to opportunity is not determined by what you look like, gray hair and wrinkles count. Hitching age to the diversity sled makes sense, personally and politically. The ground has been plowed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times Magazine opens every Sunday with an essay about what a given word or phrase reveals about the moment. On September 17, 2017, the word was \u201canti-aging.\u201d The line at the top of the print version read,…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The Beauty Industry Is Shifting from Anti-Aging to Anti-Anti-Aging. So What?<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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