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Hot Geezers in Magazines

Jill

Well, they aren’t exactly elderly, but you’d think so by the way the Times writes about them.

Brace yourself. Very soon in beauty and fashion ads you will be seeing faces of women who are actually in their 40’s – or even older. If you look closely, you may even see a wrinkle or a line or two. Granted, these are not ordinary faces: Kim Basinger in the new campaign for Miu Miu; Sharon Stone, the image for Dior Beauty. These are extraordinary, storied, famous, perhaps even infamous, faces. Faces with staying power.

Ok, I’m braced — show me a wrinkle!

Now, I suppose this ad campaign is good. It’s great that we’re finally able to look at older women (sorry, but I don’t think 40 quite qualifies as “old”) and see that, by George, women don’t physically fall into pieces after their 16th birthdays. But the tone of this piece irritates me; it’s silly that we’re shocked, just shocked, at the idea that women over 25 can be beautiful enough to be put in advertisements.

Of course, it’s shitty that these women are basically being used to sell wrinkle cream and anti-aging potions. And I think that the reporter here is correct when she says that this is largely an economic decision, in response to shifting age demographics. But I’d like to eek out a little glimmer of hope, and say that this does also reflect a shifting beauty standard, where older women are still perceived as attractive. There are all kinds of problems with beauty standards in general, which I won’t touch on now, but this could be a tiny step in the right direction. Or, if not the right direction (because selling women useless crap in an attempt to make them look 20 isn’t exactly the “right” direction), at least a better direction. Thoughts?

10 thoughts on Hot Geezers in Magazines

  1. Well, it’s a step, anyway, but it’s still saying that women are only of value if they’re attractive. How about an not-conventionally-attractive woman selling a cream that won’t make you beautiful, but it will make your skin soft? Or something…

  3. This reminds me of the recent hubbub over the Dove ads with “normal” size women in them. It’s certainly a great opportunity for us to think about what we (feminists) want to see in mainstream media, what direction we hope it’s going in, etc. Do we have any hope for the mainstream left, or will we always see such maneuvers as transparent pandering or commercializing feminist ideals?

  4. Brace yourself. Very soon in beauty and fashion ads you will be seeing faces of women who are actually in their 40’s – or even older. If you look closely, you may even see a wrinkle or a line or two. Granted, these are not ordinary faces: Kim Basinger in the new campaign for Miu Miu; Sharon Stone, the image for Dior Beauty. These are extraordinary, storied, famous, perhaps even infamous, faces. Faces with staying power.

    You know, neither of these women look much like my mom. I’m not sure it’s a step in the right direction at all, even a tiny one. We all know that celebrities don’t age like normal people.

  5. by George, women don’t physically fall into pieces after their 16th birthdays

    Is it too much to hope for John Derbyshire’s head exploding when he sees all these “elderly” women posing for these magazines?

    🙂

  6. I wouldn’t make too much of this tread, and I say that simply from a business perspective. By the time people are in their 40’s they’ve already established their consumer and brand perferences and aren’t as likely to switch or adopt new brands.

    Advertisers will remain more interested in younger demographics that can be influenced and one of the ways to influence people is to project images that people aspire to – that’s why you see young, vibrant, avant garde, images that seek to portray one type of lifestyle, and witty, confident, on-the-ball images that portray another lifestyle. I don’t see many young people aspiring to be old people so I don’t think this trend will go beyond products directed at old people, like wrinkle cream and what have you, products where people are still open to adopting brand preference. Another market segment is likely to be branding where customers are upgrading their brand preference and doing so in relation to stage-of-life.

  9. Are we back to this again? Didn’t we have this revelation in the 70’s? And 80’s? And 90’s? Did Jaime Lee Curtis let herself go for nothing? Where’s Lauren Hutton when we need her? Isabella?

    This is all such bullshit. I’m so tired of people telling us what is supposed to be attractive, and acting like they’re doing her a favor if they hire a woman over 25 or 100 pounds. Like it’s a strain to find Sharon Stone attractive – please!

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