My Botox'd Generation: Skin Tight at the Golden Globes

[Hannah Bell]

The comedian Ricky Gervais muddled through his range of material on the Golden Globes last night....From our living room couches, we bond with stars who also laugh, admire, regret or are disappointed...

But where Hollywood really shines brighter is the determined effort of stars to deploy cosmetic surgery. And boy, was that not working last night. I vote for a billboard at the private jet terminal at LAX: Cosmetic Surgery SUX.

The camera is not kind to age, if all age can do is feign to be young. Isn't there someone to advise the stars after morning coffee and before dressing, cosmetic surgery robs the face of emotion and grace? With age, our idea of beauty expands. We do not expect the movie stars who reflected our own hormonal youth to be cardboard in middle or advanced age. One cannot predict when the next batch of Botox or next pinch here or there or next hair clump inserted is simply going to amplify one's age. Last night, too many middle aged stars, former objects of desire, looked awful. (Memo to Robert Downey Jr.: Stop it, right now!)

Michelle Pfiefer, Cher, Jane Fonda: O What Have You Done With Your Faces? Breathe in, breathe out: you cannot beat gravity. Then, Sylvester Stallone; a living museum of himself. The New Walk of the Stars is marked by pen dots of a cosmetic surgeon. Under these circumstances, the camera caught Matt Damon admiring Jeff Bridges, untamed by demon surgery. British actress Helen Mirren won the evening when she noted impulsively from the microphone, how many beautiful women there were in the audience. In her beautiful lined face, I knew what she meant.

http://www.counterpunch.org/farago01182011.html

[BanzaiBonnie]

1. Those who age unnaturally

forever look like some sort of odd caricatures of their younger selves. It hits the eye wrong, wrong, wrong. I find it disturbing and not attractive, but scary.

[SoCalDem]

2. I would love to have seen Cher at a Natural older self

She was always stunning, and would have been a beautiful old lady.

Stallone is just plain CREEPY-looking now..can he even close his eyes:)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

13. I loved her old nose and teeth --

...she had character in her face. Now she looks like a waxwork. :(

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Oh, boy have you hit on a pet peave with me.

It's SO sexist (mostly) and ageist.


I was young and cute and slim until my mid 40's and I had a GREAT run. Loved every minute of it. But now I'm 55. I look 55. I have wrinkles. Body parts have re-located to regions much farther south than they used to be. I have grey hair. Guess what? It's what is SUPPOSED to happen. I'm perfectly OK with it, it's the society in which I live that wrings their hands over it.

[Skidmore]

4. I'm with you.

I can no longer defy gravity, love my gray streaks, and am proud of every crease and line in my face, all marks left on me by the act of living. I embrace my cronism.

[seabeyond]

6. high five ya la taz.... nt

[Le Taz Hot]

11. . . .

:toast: To all the Old Broads!

[seabeyond]

16. slurp.... nt

[CTyankee]

21. Hey, I went to Portugal in 09 with 6 women of a certain age. We called ourselves Six Broads Abroad!

god, did we have a blast! We "adopted" 3 gay guys and offered to make them honorary members! I don't think I have laughed as much as I did on that trip...everybody was funny, smart-alecky, sassy and just a lot of fun to be around.

[shanti]

22. i'm with ya, taz!

also 55 :hi: we had our day, it's time to move on. i just wish i had the 20/20 vision that i had until i was 45! i really miss that...everything else? meh....

[malaise]

5. To be honest when gravity began to take its toll

on my body it took some adjusting to reality. It wasn't all bad - I enjoyed watching the silver strands take over my brown hair because I was as lucky as mom and it was even and gradual and I was always an athlete and still walk and ride my stationary bike. I'm the right weight for my height, I'm fit and I'm healthy. I like the aging gracefully path.

The obsession with 'aging' is way too expensive - we prefer spending the little money we have enjoying life.

[monmouth]

7. I want my neck back,....n/t

[Urban Prairie]

8. I 'm lucky as hell at 54. the young girls who work @ the dollar store nearby still flirt with me.

they don't know how old I am, and at the same time, unlucky as hell, cause I'm now disabled and can't work....:(

[spanone]

9. there wasn't a wrinkle on stage....it was kinda scary

[Vinca]

10. I saw someone interviewing Joan Rivers the other day and

that's about as close to a space alien as a human being can get.

[gratuitous]

14. Comedy Central had a roast for her

Her face was so immobile, it was impossible for me to tell when she was enjoying the show and when she was offended. There were a couple of times when she appeared to take umbrage, but her expression never budged.

I will say that the Hollywood Dream Factory absolutely demands that people never age, and I can understand the obsession with looks, because from the earliest days of any actor's career, there are always comments about this star or that star showing age in some way or another, usually with the cattiest of innuendo. There's no escaping it. But yeah, there's a point where a person has officially overdone it, and it may be apparent only in retrospect.

[SoCalDem]

15. She's looking more & more like that cat lady from NYC

I don't understand it.. Betty White is gorgeous at 89, and she's got wrinkles & some saggy skin.. We are supposed to show our age..

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. Botox and fillers are just dead wrong for actors..

For an actor, it is ALL about the face and the expression of the internal -- to lose or dimish that ability is insane. I can't stand to watch Nicole Kidman in films these days -- her face, especially her forehead -- is essentially immobile. And poor Meg Ryan -- too much filler in her lips and nasal lines -- she was almost unrecognizable in some photos. And the men are now just as bad. :puke:

Kudos to actors like Jeff and Helen who have decided to be the mature actors that they are. :applause:

[Hello_Kitty]

17. Good point.

The older actors who didn't mess with their faces are getting a lot more roles. The Botox Queens and Kings are relegated to cameos and parodies.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. Well, one could also say --

that the actors whose fame relied primairily on their looks as opposed to their acting chops have very little to fall back on but maintaining that face. Truly skilled actors such as Jeff and Helen can keep on working until they drop.

[LynneSin]

23. Look at Meryl Streep - she's doing wonderful and she's had little work done on her face

It amazed me with her movie "It's Complicated". She played a romantic female lead opposite of 2 men both younger than her. Heck Alec Baldwin is more than a decade younger than Meryl Streep. (the other is Steve Martin).

Nicole Kidman's face is just a joke. What's really sad is they are convincing women who are in their early 20s to start on the Botox and Lip fillers. Lindsay Lohan's face is just a mess and she's not even 30 yet.

[Hello_Kitty]

25. Meryl knew how far to take it. She looks "refreshed" not like a mannequin.

I guess one of the good things about having a little extra junk in my trunk at 42 is that the fat is also smoothing out my wrinkles! :)

[Chiyo-chichi]

26. I saw Meryl Streep speak recently. She said she has never had any work done.

Jane Pauley interviews here here: http://broadcast.iu.edu.
They talk about cosmetic surgery at around the 29 minute mark. Streep makes some of the very same points that others in this thread are making.

[H2O Man]

19. Darn it!

At first glance, I thought the title had "Boxed" and "Golden Gloves" in it.

I still read the OP, of course. I have never been fond of our culture's denial of aging. That is combined with the unhealthy image that is held up for women of all ages. My wife/best friend has times when she worries about the way that she looks. A wrinkle here, or a couple pounds there, is upsetting for her. In my mind, she's the most beautiful woman ever, in so many ways. I think that for her age, she's way, way physically attractive. But she too often channels internally the plastic crap our society worships. (I am a physically ugly sort, and have never wasted energy worrying about that as an adult. Used to be self-conscious as a kid, and so I do understand some of what people feel. But my main complaqint is that all my siblings have very gray hair, and I only have a few strands of gray.)

[Missy Vixen]

20. People claim they don't like Botox or cosmetic surgery

but God forbid that anyone now looks their actual age. Those of us who've passed 50 know the truth: We're invisible.

There are hugely profitable industries (and generations of social conditioning) that rely on making women feel so badly about themselves and their aging faces and bodies they'll spend every last dime and submit to surgical procedures to continue feeling like they are relevant.

[pipi_k]

24. OK, that's all sad, but...

you know what's really pathetic?

When I hear people...mostly young women...talking about plastic surgery, etc. before they're even 40 years old.

Many of them aren't doing what they can/should be doing to protect their skin, like quitting smoking or drinking and staying out of the sun.

People can't help their genetics (I'm lucky to have good complexion genes) but they can minimize damage by protecting their faces instead of baking themselves like rumproasts out in the sun, then ending up looking like shoe leather when they're 45.

I've mostly stayed out of the sun and am happy to say that, at 58, my complexion can pass for 40 or less.