Is Ageing Newsworthy?
July 15th, 2011The media love to cover how celebrities are having fillers, botox and face lifts trying to highlight when possible where it has “gone wrong”. Photographs of unnatural looking lips, swollen faces and tell tale bruising are adorned across the pages of gossip magazines, sometimes suggesting that natural is better. However, they also imply that we should try to achieve perfection; that we, as men and women of today, should aspire to have flawless skin, a radiant smile and look forever youthful. They portray that no matter what age, people should always look younger and try to prevent the ageing process.
In a ‘news’ page of a weekly magazine, two well known age defying stars, were featured looking less taut than they normally do. Said celebrities, both around the 50 year age mark, are known for holding back the tell tale signs of their age, are more often than not, are praised for their youthful appearance. They will not deny any rumours of cosmetic surgery or beauty enhancing treatments, but unfortunately, they are also subjected to criticisms stating that they should focus less on maintaining their young looks. Nevertheless, when these stars go out without makeup on, with faint wrinkles in view, they become a theme of gossip. A 50 year old non-celeb is free to walk around au naturale and be free of judgemental glances, but the famous are criticized for their lines, that are often the result of genetics.
Over time, as the media and entertainment world increases in size, A Listers have become one of the main topics of conversation in our everyday life. Everywhere we look, there are magazines that feature celebrities on the covers. But more often than not, the cover stories are based on their appearance. Why is it that our society today appears to care more for how actors look then the films they appear in? If it was not for their talent, we would not be aware of these icons, so why do we choose to discuss their looks, and more specifically their ageing?
