Pat Taub
I get it. I’m not supposed to grow old because I live in a society that worships youth. My wrinkles, gray hair, sagging breasts, and flabby upper arms render me unacceptable.
A typical older woman’s body that the anti-aging industry would “fix” with surgery, drastic dieting and more!
The anti-aging industry to the rescue. Up-to-the-minute plastic surgery procedures, facial fillers, beauty creams and medical supplements offer remedies that play on a woman’s insecurities about aging while stuffing the pockets of anti-aging specialists. The anti-aging industry is on target to reach $331 billion globally by 2021!
Anti-aging advice tells me I won’t be really old if I get a facelift, follow a spartan diet, exercise religiously and no matter what never refer to myself as “old.”
It feels like the anti-aging movement is another attempt to deny death where anti-aging becomes anti-death—pretty insane considering we’re all going to die some day.
Botox helps drive the anti-aging market
Many anti-aging physicians consider aging as a disease.
I got into a small argument with a doctor friend on this topic. He said he doesn’t like the term “anti-aging” either but does believe that medical interventions like the (sometimes controversial) hormone replacement for osteoporosis can often guarantee a longer, healthier life.
I considered this argument but countered that there are too many docs and beauty emporiums that prey on the vain older woman by promising beauty creams and treatments that take away the years, but in reality are a new form of snake oil and often unsafe to boot. Because the cosmetic industry is largely unregulated those expensive night creams might contain toxic ingredients.
Expensive night creams may have dubious results and are often unregulated
Here’s my beef: I’m not ashamed of being old. I recognize I’m aging and I don’t want to make myself crazy searching for a postmodern fountain of youth. I’m happy most days. I’m sick of receiving emails offering bargains for a forehead lift, buttocks enhancement or age-defying smoothies.
I consider my aging regime quite sufficient and not in need of the excessive measures promoted by social media. I follow a healthy diet, exercise, and meditate while occasionally splurging on a massage or facial. So dear world please take me as I am and stop trying to make me feel ashamed of my aging.
As part of my aging routine I do Pilates a few times a week
Fortunately for those anti-anti-aging among us there are credible anti-aging detractors, like Dr. S. Jay Olshansky, a longevity specialist and professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Here’s his response to the anti-aging movement:
It’s easy to get seduced into the claim that there is something called anti-aging medicine. . . . . Exercise is about the only equivalent of a fountain of youth that exists today. It improves skin elasticity, muscle tone, bone density and it is pretty much free.”
Dr. Olshansky considers exercise a natural fountain of youth
Olshansky gets even more direct:
While many of today’s anti-aging practitioners have their patients’ health and best interests in mind, others are not far removed from the dollar-chasing hucksters of the past. . . . . I am optimistic that something is going to happen and happen soon that will allow us to slow the biological process. But it is not anything that is out there today.”
My urgent prayer is for older women to conquer their insecurities about aging where they take pride in their wisdom years. Forget about aging Hollywood stars that go under the knife so often that their faces look frozen. Instead remind yourself of European celebrities, who have aged naturally, unashamed of their lined faces: women like Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and the recently deceased French director, Agnes Varda.
And never, never forget all the richness you hold inside. Your inner beauty glows with the life experience denied to the young.
Two radiant older women with inner beauty and rich life experiences
