The Ways Women Age: Using and Refusing Cosmetic Intervention by Abigail T. Brooks

Author:Abigail T. Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Women's Studies, Sociology, SOC026000 Social Science / Sociology / General, Social Science, General
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2017-03-07T01:01:17.436000+00:00

“It’s Stupid Not to Do Everything You Can”

I heard a lot from women who embrace intervention about how looks matter—and how looking young matters—particularly for women. Women repeatedly expressed this attitude as reflecting an empirical reality, but also a kind of moral duty. To be a woman means to care about how you look, and to maintain as youthful an appearance as possible. To be a woman, therefore, means to have cosmetic anti-aging intervention. In chapter 1, readers were introduced to fifty-nine-year-old Barbara, who has had a facelift and an eyelift already, and who is considering having another facelift and a neck lift in celebration of her upcoming sixtieth birthday. For Barbara, cosmetic anti-aging procedures are a “no-brainer.” “Who wouldn’t take advantage of surgery?” she asks, incredulous at the thought that any woman would not do just that. Julia will “absolutely avail myself” of cosmetic anti-aging procedures and is astonished that some women seem unbothered by the age-driven changes in their appearance: “It amazes me that these things don’t bother them . . . it amazes me when I see women who . . . do nothing.” Debra, the fifty-six-year-old musician who told us about her two eyelifts in chapter 1, puts it this way: “If women can afford to do it, they should do it.” Mary, a semi-retired commercial realtor, who is seventy-two, agrees: “I mean, why not? You might as well do what you can.”

According to Mary, having a facelift was one of the best decisions she’s made in her life: “I have no regrets. Absolutely. It’s the smartest thing I ever did.” This is because, Mary tells me, “needing to look good” (i.e., to look young) is undeniably important for a woman’s social acceptance and professional success. As she puts it:

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