Two extraordinarily beautiful women have recently been featured in the New York Times.
Born into a world of glamour and celebrity, Brooke Shields was a model by the time she was 11 months old. She was the prodigy of Frank Shields, a handsome professional tennis star and successful business man, and Teri Shields, a beautiful actress and model. Her mother guided her young daughter in the entertainment arena where she became a model and an actress(and a sex symbol) as a young child. Time Magazine called her “the look” in the 1980s.
And then there is Cindy Crawford whose face has been photographed a zillion times over thirty-five years. She is a force in the business arena where her name appears on a multitude of products including her own wine label. Her beauty and her celebrity, almost without exception, ensures product success. Early on she made the distinction that she modeled but was not “a model.”
She has become a brand and the next generation of models see her success as their future.
As these women move into middle age, (close to 60) they are both associated with product lines for beautiful skin and hair care. The skincare by Cindy Crawford line is called Meaningful Beauty. As one reviewer put it, “any product that can make us look as good as Cindy garners immediate interest.”
Brooke Shields was quoted as saying that she was “shocked” to realize how women over 40 are treated, saying “You are put out to pasture.” She doesn’t believe in “anti” products because they suggest that we are trying not to age. “We aren’t trying to grown younger, we are trying to grow.”
But here’s the thing. Neither of these beautiful women really know what it is like to get to an age where women are overlooked, and treated as though they have no import. They will always be beautiful and their touched-up photographs and occasional filler will make the average woman feel more “middle rage”.
And they have successful and stable long marriages too.
How is this possible? If we were to interview each of them, the first question for discussion would have to be if they can imagine what it feels like to walk into a crowded room, or walk down the street in New York, or hail a cab, and have no one see you?
To Brooke Shields’ credit, she is trying to lobby for women in middle age to feel positive about themselves and their accomplishments. According to Women’s Wear Daily, “Brooke Shields defined beauty for a generation of women, but she has never let her beauty define her.”
But her beauty did and always will define her. We hate to sound like naysayers but really it is true, being beautiful and a celebrity means that you will never be able to understand what it feels like to be overlooked and not valued.
While we applaud their entrepreneurial spirit, it seems impossible to believe that anyone would be foolish enough to believe that our skin and hair are only a few dollars away from being that perfect.
Unlike Cindy and Brooke, there is a third beautiful celebrity woman, age 55, who is getting negatively criticized in almost every publication on the newsstands. Jennifer Lopez(JLO), in the midst of what appears to be the disintegration of her fourth short-lived marriage, has taken to social media with hundreds of selfies and curated images from every photoshopped angle. We are being inundated with flawless images of her anatomy from her derriere, her bust, her lips and to the mysteriously missing lines between her eyebrows.
Multitudes of everyday women have decisively criticized her for her diva-like obsession with her looks, while her marriage is imploding and her children are looking forlorn. No one is buying the idea that her JLO Beauty products are how and why she looks the way she does.
Could this mean that we are finally waking up to the fact that what we see is not what we get? That in spite of the images of perfection and beauty, all is not what it appears? Is this an epic paradigm shift? It may be that, in this case, JLO is trying too hard to be firm and fit and perfect and is fighting middle age. But it is interesting to see that women see through it.
The lesson for us all is to look as good as you can at whatever age and be grateful for the journey to this point and appreciative of the wonders of grown-up womanhood. However, as we look ahead to the opportunity to elect the first woman president, we see that sexism still exists.
We have to wonder how that is still possible in 2024. Sadly, how women are perceived today underscores the insecurity about the aging process. We continue to believe that a beauty serum or a plastic surgeon can erase the years, and return us to being valued and “seen”.
We are all for whatever choices women make but we are lobbying for a change in the landscape that ensures that women who look 60 or 70 or 80 have import and are appreciated, seen, and valued.
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia