Pat Taub
Contemporary beauty standards celebrate the older woman whose aging lines have been erased by cosmetic surgery, making her look years younger. Stretched out faces have become ubiquitous, no longer confined to film stars and celebrities; middle-income women are lining up for procedures from Botox to full face lifts, or traveling overseas for less expensive procedures. Older women report renewed self confidence following cosmetic surgery.
Actress, Jackee Harry, 69, before and after surgery
Women rejecting plastic surgery on principle or because it’s unaffordable can feel insecure about their looks—rarely an issue for our mothers’ and grandmothers’ generation when aging naturally was a given. Unlike modern women, they didn’t expend energy agonizing over their appearance.
My grandmother, age 82, confident and lovely in the pre- plastic surgery era
Erasing the naturally aging woman’s countenance is tantamount to erasing the wise woman, whose wrinkles represented a life well-lived. When we reject the wise woman, we lose her unique blend of compassion and justice, exemplified by Jane Goodall, Ireland’s Mary Robinson, Angela Davis, Codepink’s Ann Wright.
Jane Goodall, 91, a few months before her death in October, 2025
Where are the Feminists protesting the beauty industry’s targeting older women? According to Feminist scholar Linda Hirschman, collective Feminism, that mobilized women for social change, has been largely replaced by “Choice Feminism,” prioritizing individual choices over group actions. Choice Feminists frequently justify their actions: “I’m doing what makes me feel better.” or “I’m my own person.”
If you’re among the “no plastic surgery” seeking validation, arrange a meet-up with similarly inclined women, sharing how you learned to accept your older face.
Here’s how a few women on the WOW Facebook describe their journey:
Two older women, uninterested in plastic surgery
BARB: It took a while, but I have accepted that I now look like my mother.
CINDY: Although it would be nice to have the face of my 40’s, I’ve earned every laugh line, every scar, every wrinkle.
LESLIE: Would never have cosmetic surgery or consider it. Wrinkles, creepy skin, sagging, and overall changes are part of aging. How my face looks has not been a priority in my life.
PAM: I think that surgery would just make me look like a 68-year-old who has had surgery.
MADDY: I continue to do the deep work of rooting out my own internalized ageism. I used to dream about my “face lift” but now I just love my aging face. (66 in two weeks)
Additional actions:
Develop an appreciation for the transcendent beauty in the older woman’s face. Among the women I know in their 70’s, 80’s, and even 90’s, their faces are luminous with the grace and serenity of the wisdom years, which I find more interesting than the one-dimensional faces of young women.
Two beautiful elders, Adelaide, 90, and Connie, 80
Make a list of well-known women who have rejected plastic surgery, like film stars, Judi Dench, Charlotte Rampling and the late Diane Keaton.
Acquaint yourself with writers affirming the older woman. Essayist Roger Rosenblatt penned a New York Times love letter to his 85-year-old wife, praising her as having “the grace and stature that only long years of hoping and striving—and living—can bestow.”
Lorraine Devon Wile, a columnist for The Guardian, writes:
Youthful beauty is one kind of beauty. There are other kinds: the beauty of grace, acceptance, and feeling at ease in your skin. The beauty of wisdom, life lived, experience gained.
As older Feminists, let’s offer the next generation an aging model, measuring a woman’s self-worth through her individual and community contributions over the superficiality of her appearance. Let’s protest the older woman’s erasure. Let’s age fiercely and gently. Let’s take up the banner for wise women who can restore compassion and justice to a world ruled by dark forces.
Elderly women who’ve led full lives, aging naturally
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