This list of “13 Stars You Probably Wouldn’t Recognize Today” is really, really depressing.

Renee Zelweger, Jennifer Grey, and Sharon Osbourne being the partial exceptions. Unless, like Heidi Montag, it’s a remarkably flattering picture compared to some of the others I’ve seen. Or perhaps the other images are particularly unflattering one?

That the aging here isn’t natural is hardly a piercing insight. Most of it is related to plastic surgery. I confess a little vindictive part of me sees a sense of justice in this. Women artificially trying to prop up their looks paying a steep price for it. It’s honestly the sort of thing you expect to see in just fairy tails. The queen who sips the juice to stay young forever turning into a freak.

The thing is, though, that they’re not doing this in a vacuum. They’re doing this (at least in part) to maintain their careers in an industry that has a tendency to toss women aside after a certain age. Not that all female stars fade in their younger years, but the competition does become increasingly stiff.

I don’t consider it accidental that we run into far more cases of women “aging” like this than men. Partially because female attractiveness is more of a societal obsession than male attractiveness. Also because natural male aging is more accepted than female aging. Male stars don’t have to do as much to themselves to maintain their movie star looks.


Category: Theater

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2 Responses to Unnatural Aging

  1. The irony is that some of the women discussed were beyond their peak of popularity, and the plastic surgery did little to bring them any positive attention. I suspect it’s less about competing for roles per se, but it may simply be competition within their milieu. They’re not worried about getting another acting job, but more so about the other woman in their age range that lives down the street and still attracts the men in the community.

    • Will Truman says:

      It’s my impression that the plastic surgery probably occurred earlier in their lives (when they were closer to their prime) and the effects we see here tend to be what happens when you age out of your plastic surgery.

      Not the case with Montag, but definitely the case with Boyle. The plastic surgery was noticeable in between The Practice and Las Vegas.

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