A woman columnist from last week’s New York Times expressed her perspective that boomers should allow themselves to age naturally instead of using youth-enhancers when they are no longer young.
Dominique Browning said that her current rule of thumb, when confronted with an enhanced face, is that if she finds herself vaguely wondering whether there was work, the alteration was well done. But it’s the motivation for the cosmetic work that she’s questioning. “If you choose not to partake of the benefits of needle and knife, you are judged to be making a statement. You are taking a position against the current standards of beauty.”
She also argued that feminism has nothing to do with saying no to knife and needle. Feminists worry about why women still make only 77 cents to every dollar a man makes, not whether women are going broke on reducing wrinkles.
There are always two sides to the argument – why can’t we just ignore the signs of aging and just grow old naturally? Are we boomers in self-denial? And my answer is always this – like everything else, cosmetic work (both invasive and non-invasive) should be done in moderation. Why do it at all? Well, if this makes some boomer men and women happier and more comfortable with their self-images, why not? Look at these procedures like self-improvement solutions. If the modern-world technology is safe and fast and efficient, and you can afford it, then by all means make use of it and enjoy the benefits. But please bear in mind that defying physical aging is just unnatural, and a boomer with no wrinkles or facial expression is just fake, artificial and deceiving.
My experience is that a man or woman who constantly has cosmetic procedures done to such an extent that there are no laugh lines and no facial emotions, then he or she usually has a bigger self-esteem problem than just defying age. And for those patients who are putting their lives in danger by going through surgery without doing their research, they are just plain foolish. But when boomers are just undergoing cosmetic enhancements as moderate self-improvement solutions, then I don’t think people should make harsh judgements. After all, I’m sure even those who constantly go under the knife should realize that there’s something more important in life and human beings that are not related to physical appearance!
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