The Paradox Of Impossible Beauty: Body Changes And Beauty Practices In Aging Women

Paradox means something that may appear to be nonsensical, or a contradictory statement, but when investigated it can be a justified fact. So, what might the title “The Paradox of Impossible Beauty” mean? Probably that there’s no way aging women find themselves “ugly” or less beautiful because of the signs that come along with aging or that they’re not using various “beauty practices” to appear younger. Enguerran Macia along with Priscilla Duboz and Dominque Cheve have conducted a series of interviews with 29 women between the ages of 65-75 years old throughout France to aid in writing this article. The article’s main objective is to give insight on things experienced by aging women concerning beauty practices and body changes.

Also, to assist in further understanding why some women resort to beauty products, cosmetic surgery and cosmetic medicines. Some of the women questioned during the interview said they felt the need to hide and preserve their aging skin. Whereas other s had decided to accept themselves and age gracefully and naturally. In today’s Western societies, the norms regarding women are being blurred. Leaving many to think that the body must always appear youthful. When in reality the care devoted to the body is an effort to withstand aging as an “attempt to escape time” (Duret & Roussel, 2003).

In fact, aging adults assume it’s a necessity to emerge youthful in order to be considered beautiful. During 1968 people reinforced the link between beauty and youth. Which considers being thin and young a kosher beauty concern. Women between the ages of 65-75 years old see beauty as the emergence of youth and think that they are rightfully ostracized from the canons of beauty that they once had, because they can no longer meet the beauty standards of today’s society. Assuming that “as we get older we get ugly, that’s for sure. ” (Madam J age 67). Throughout history women have been discredited and given little social value, rights, or even voice and were merely objectified as a means of sexual pleasure to men.

As well as carrying and nurturing children. Because of this their youth and beauty were all they had to attain recognition. Now after years of fighting for themselves women are now able to exercise their power in the public arena. Yet aging women have to face the gerontology called the “double standard” (Sontag 1972). This takes into consideration both aging and gender and women fighting the visible signs of aging. When someone or something gives off a vibe of negativity, it is considered to be call a stigma. (Goffman 1975) In completing this article the authors recognize three types of stigmas: “Abominations of the body, blemishes of individual character, and tribal stigmas such as nationality or religion. ” Stigmas are those you can see or unable to see, those you can manipulate or not. Stigmas are related to image, demeanour, or the need to fit in, which all depend on the social context. Generally aging women occasionally find themselves treating their bodies as a stigma. Skin is considered to be the key sign of aging, with it comes sags, bags, limps and wrinkles.

Although aging affects the entire body the face is what bothers most women because it’s their identity. Although women have mixed emotions toward aging some of them still find ways to cope with it. Giving them the opportunity to sustain their self-esteem and even their self-image. Some women find it difficult to conceal aging for reason such as: financial hardships, health risks, the fear that it could go wrong, the fear that they’ll be unrecognizable to both themselves and their loved ones and the fear of death due to a faulty operation. However, consumer society still provides women with many options to combat signs of aging, such as: face and hand oils, creams, dyes, makeup and cosmetic medicine. As they lead them to believe that if the natural aging process can be fought then they should do so. Despite their concerns regarding cosmetic surgery women still have an ambivalent relationship with it. Some of the women interviewed for this article claim that they wouldn’t want it to be an alternative for them because they’ve accepted the signs of aging. Whereas others felt as if cosmetic surgery would be an easy way to appear younger and get rid of the signs of aging.

Although when it comes to cosmetic medicines, they’re a bit more lenient. Because it doesn’t come with as much risks or health concerns as surgery does and is also less expensive. Women are led to think they can escape the process of aging, when in reality it’s impossible. Regardless of the variety of cosmetic products, medicine, or surgery their pursuit to evade the ever-ticking hands of time are inevitable. Even if one resorts to such tactics eventually the signs of aging will return. So, there’s only so much you can do for so long. Then you’ll be forced to just accept yourself.

In Conclusion, at the time of the Renaissance death was a part of the “egalitarian saturnalia” which used images of a roman feast to signify that death was solely based on one’s differ in opinions. The study conducted exemplifies aging as “egalitarian saturnalia”, by focusing on a variety of appreciations of beauty and giving women the chance to reminisce on their once youthful and beautiful appearance. Although some of the women consider this to be a good thing because they didn’t feel as if they met the standards of beauty in their youth or adulthood. Resulting in what we call: “The Paradox of Impossible beauty. ” Even though the same cannot be said for the other societies, further studies would need to be conducted to determine if this is just a trend in Marseille France.