Archive for 4 May, 2009
Raising the beauty bar – again
There was another piece about celebrity middle aged bikini bodies in last weekend’s paper, citing the latest entrants to the Fabulous For her Age club like Cindy Crawford and Courtney Cox Arquette, who have managed to maintain their bodies at perfect 20-something standards well into their 40s.
google image results for ‘Nicolette Sheridan beach’ – she’s 45…
This is perhaps a natural evolution of the Helen Mirren in a bikini fuss from last July, where she was widely applauded for looking Fabulous For Her Age, but at least she looked brilliant for her age, rather than brilliant when compared to women two or three decades her junior.
It seems that in the last few years (or even months) the beauty bar has been raised significantly. And women are responding to this with more than a little help from the medical profession. At dinner the other night, both of the thirty something women I was dining with had just had their braces removed. I can think of another three women I know who are currently sporting train tracks, a couple of recent boob jobs, one botox and a lady who went off and quietly got a facelift so good I thought she’d just been on a very restful holiday.
I can’t help wondering who we are spending all this time and money improving our appearance for. Is it for self confidence? Or is it because the perceived pressure is now there for us to become ageless beauties?
If the external pressure to conform to this model of perfection continues, the world is going to become a very boring place full of ageless practically perfect faces and bodies. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be less than perfect but uniquely me.
