AIBU to think famous women don't look worse because they age, it's because of the surgery.

LL has had a deep plane facelift. The optimum time to have a face lift, particularly a deep plane lift is in your mid-late 30s, and then once a decade thereafter. Kate Beckinsale is done similarly. Sarah Jessica Parker has bemoaned that she missed the window to have work done (such as a face lift) and now it would be too obvious she had (surgical) work done.

Face lifts, particularly deep plane ones work best on faces that haven't been tweaked with botox or filler.

The male equivalent is Simon Cowell. He has been under a lot of scrutiny regarding the cosmetic work he has had done.
I see increasingly more women, who are not celebrities, following the trend as they hit their 40s. They look like Caricatures and really stick out in normal life. I was in the doctors waiting room recently when a woman walked in, she turned heads for all the wrong reasons. Her face looked grotesque but I suspect in her eyes the fact we all stared reinforced, in her head, how attractive she perceives herself.

If you have always been a head turner it’s possible that you will be unaware of the changing reasons you now attract attention.
Both ends of the beauty spectrum tend to attract attention but if you have been a natural beauty in your youth you probably are not conscious of the difference.

An author I loved reading died because of cosmetic surgery. She was having something done to her chin and I think there was a reaction to the anaesthetic, she was in a coma and died after a few days. Yes, she could have died from any surgery but cosmetic procedures are by and large unnecessary, so to lose your life because society tells you you'll feel/be/look better if you just have this/these procedure(s) is just horribly tragic. I remember being a selfish bitch when I heard what had happened. I was angry with her because I wanted more books which was so nice of me. And then I was just so sad that it had happened, that a funny, talented woman had died because her chin wasn't "perfect".

The Brazilian butt lift is a worrying procedure with most decent surgeons refusing to go there and a lot of deaths because it's dangerous and easy to botch. Liposuction can also be a dangerous one. I think that's the sugery that Kanye West's mother was having when she died.

And I post this but deep in my head I think that if I could afford it and be guaranteed not to look like a trout I'd probably have a little filler in my lips and/or whatever would lessen the (ex) smoker's lines around my lips and the lines "pulling my lips down". It won't happen because I can't afford it nor get the guarantee but I'm acknowledging my hypocrisy because I guess that's how strong the societal pull toward "perfecting oneself" has become. You can see how wrong it can be, know that success, whatever that might be, is far from guaranteed, think that it's not at all right for you and still think "maybe just that little tweak."

@blueshoes I feel for you, it can be tough to find the time. But you don't need much time to weight train, I only go twice a week now. That's all I need.
Weight and strength training isn't like doing lots of cardio. Where you have to do more and more to maintain the physique goals/fat loss. Strength training/muscle building has a compounding effect, meaning, the longer you do it, the easier it becomes, the more muscle you build, the more fat you burn and then you don't have to do as much anymore to maintain the benefits.
My DS has flown the nest and is away at Uni/working, my parents don't live in the UK and they're still mobile and independent! They're in their 70s now.
I also make my health and fitness my top priority in my life, following having sciatica I had to. No choice. I now treat my own physical health accordingly, my training schedule is as important to me as breathing and eating.
It's not a hobby I hate to do, I enjoy it. I look forward to it. It's a chance for some 'me' time too!
You won't see me doing these crazy cardio classes where I exhaust myself and feel crap after and can't face again.
I work hard but at my own pace. It's after all, you against you.
Sciatica caused both a mental and physical shift, this I guess is what happens when you entirely lose your mobility overnight. I was overweight and not taking enough care of myself. I didn't make my physical health enough of a priority and was given a reminder!
One of the best lessons I've learned in my life so far.
I'm grateful I had sciatica.

I had a taste of my own frailty, my own future, if I didn't make the changes necessary. So I'm training for my older self NOW.

It was more evident when her face was moving.Or rather, unable to move.

That's impressive.

Where do you get the time for weight training? I am busier in my 50s than (teenagers and aged parent) than any other time in my life.

I can understand older women wanting to stop time, preserve their looks. It never looks good… But I can see why they want to do it.

But young women altering their perfectly good faces? Tulisa just looks terrible. And most of the reality TV girls, ruining their looks.

Hi yes that's the one; it's my DH that watches that TV show, he's pretty oblivious to these things tbh but even he noticed a change in her as he watched more seasons. She's so young as well!

I actually like threads like this one because I think this is an important issue for society to talk about.
Women need to talk to women, we need to face to this shame of ageing. We need to realise what is really behind this- men's desire to have a young woman by their side, and not some self-love, emancipation, girl power,...
Many of the procedures done on a healthy (often already beautiful) person carry serious risks, long term or short term. And that's even before we talk about losing facial expression and authentic features, the resources spent, the dissonance of being vs looking a certain age.

I just came across an interview with Lisa Kudraw and most of the comments on IG were very positive about her looks. Yes, looks- not the things she said, sadly... However, it's so refreshing (almost shocking) to see a Hollywood person ageing naturally, people couldn't help themselves.
I do hope the more people like her we have in the spotlight, and the more we talk about it, the less popular plastic surgery will become. Things are going too fast the other way now, and we can't just bury our heads in the sand and call it personal preference.

@HagsRule Erin Moriarty?

@uptheculdesac the really sad part of it all, is to be able to prove you are still viable as a female character as you age (lets face it, men don't have the same issue) in TV/film, you have to have the work done to stay in your job. And being in your job/industry is the only real way you can make impactful change.
Double-edged sword.
I really respect the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Margot Robbie, who both stopped trying to be in the industry as just actors and set up their own production companies to start changing the narratives. And obviously it's a great root for making $$$$
It's taken a long long time for women to get to that point.
This is the only way it will change, they have to compete with the studios and bring female-driven narratives that don't represent misogynistic archetypes on screen.

I saw Celia Imrie recently on netflix the drama The Diplomat and she looked amazing; yes a lady in her 70s, but an absolutely fabulous one! She still looked like herself and her acting was amazing. I do feel like a lot of actresses who go for the fake look struggle with expressions and it takes me out of the acting. Not so with Celia. Also to shout out on that series Keri Russell also looked amazing and unless it's been v v subtle, she looks really natural too, even down to the tired eyes! Unless that was just part of the scene and actually just good make up. I'd love to look like Keri (she's 6 years older than me) and to look like Celia in my 70s.

The saddest example of this for me is the young actress from The Boys TV show. Although i would say she is the extreme and probably has some form of dysmorphia.

@uptheculdesac re. ageing, yes you're right, that's the problem. Aesthetically some women age much better than others. But that will become irrelevant now, because tweaks are so popular, it's become normalised.
Result = those that age well naturally are no longer believed because it's so generally accepted that if you look great as you age, you likely have had tweaks!

It's a vicious circle and sadly I don't see any sign of it going back.
Those of us Gen X and Boomers may be the last generations that actually go 'nah, gonna let it all hang'. Because the reality is the younger gens are getting lots of work younger and younger.

So I'm afraid that genie is out of the bottle and it's not going to go back in the bottle. Remember, we're all selling our genetics one way or another. And younger women are very much still in that biological hunt. And that fact of evolutionary biology is very much exploited by all these trillion $ industries.
So selling fake genetics (ie. that we look younger than we are, more attractive, healthier, with perfect teeth, lustrous hair, etc and so forth) is just evolutionary biology at play, as it so often is.

The real point here for me is should women lose their vocations as a result of the patriarchal male gaze of evolutionary biology. And that's a distinct NO. Are they going to want to screw young fertile women, of course.
But women are fighting hard against the skewed viewpoint that the patriarchal view should mean they disappear from screens, their own careers, TV etc just because they get to that 'no longer f able age'.
So the only way this will change is what I'm happy to say women like Nicole Kidman and similar are doing.
I admire her, she has made an effort to work with and bring more women into the industry.
But they need to get to the power base, which are the studios (at least for the moment/AI may change this). Ie. the decision makers.

So granted, it's a reason to be annoyed and expressing unfairness to it is all understandable. But giving the bird to evolutionary biology and those exploiting it, is like asking the sun not to rise. 😉

I agree 💪🏼

@Disturbia81 aw thanks! Yes, if you've been considering strength training, then I highly recommend it. Baby steps at first. But you'll be amazed at what you can achieve and building up muscle strength is just such an incredible achievement. Especially at an age where you're expecting everything to go downhill. And it will, unless you counter it 😉

Where I am from there is nothing in the way of ‘work done’ or aesthetics of any description. So I see the full range of aging within my peer group and older. Some are wrinkle free some are not, many have sun aging (it’s a different climate) but what I do see a lot of is that softening of the jowls, the heaviness of the brow and the way the neck loosens up. Very different to what I see around me in London, where I live (I see all sorts here), and very different to what I see on screen - the aging of Hollywood stars doesn’t compare. Obviously there’s always one or two that buck the trend.

That doesn’t mean that I think people over 50 automatically become decrepit…

I can't bear seeing fillers and all that crap. I'm 50 and no way will I ever use anything like it. It's obvious and hideous.

AG is looking quite worryingly lean.
Regarding aging, I think some people on here have a distorted view of what women look like as we age. Not everyone gets very wrinkled or double chins. I have very few crows feet only when I smile. No forehead lines at all. When I raise my eyebrows my forehead barely creases. My eyebrows just go up and the skin just compresses I guess. It doesn't go into lines.
What I do get is hyperpigmentation and melasma which is also something that is attributed to age along with hormones and sun.

But my point is that not everyone who is quite smooth has 'done' something. Brook Shields whom I posted a picture of looks to me as a very attractive but naturally lined and aged 58 year old. Another poster thinks she must have had work as she looks so young 🤷🏻‍♀️
Some people seem to think everyone over 50 looks decrepit

This is a really motivating post thankyou!

@uptheculdesac looking good!

Yes, sad thing is for TV/film it puts on 10lb, so actors have to be rake thin.
Looks great on camera, but emaciated IRL.
The most shocking at the moment has been Ariana Grande, she looks skeletal.

Speaking of Lindsay Lohan, Kristin Chenoweth in the LL Christmas Netflix movie (Our Little Secret) looks so odd. It must be filler, but it's a definite and unnatural look. Not youthful imo - just a bit odd. Even with professional make-up and lighting.

@TorroFerney
I have fewer wrinkles than BS and so do some other people I know. We haven't had filler and Botox. Well I haven't and I am pretty sure my friends haven't. Who knows

My point is to me BS looks natural because she looks older than I do. I'm not sure why you are so incredulous. She really doesn't look particularly smooth for 58 to me.

No lip filler. They are pretty full but I have to admit they look especially full here! Today they are looking more dried and shrivelled with the cold