We live in a culture that is more obsessed by the minute with maintaining its youth. To be an aging woman is to transition from being desirable to replaceable. Growing older is becoming forgetable; to retire from society. We dedicate our existence to avoiding the inevitable and battling our own mortality. As futile an attempt of anti-aging is, so many are on the bandwagon.
Normalize Being Human
Since the 1880s, diet and beauty industries have profited from creating so-called problems for them to solve. Advertisements, influencers, and marketing efforts persuade us by targeting our insecurities. Our cultural value of women’s beauty is the foundation for marketing their products.
You Are Not a Problem to Fix
For more than a century, these industries have been successful in convincing us we are a problem to fix. And we’re still buying into the messaging. The products haven’t changed much, but the language is more exploitive of our emotions.
You Are More Than a Body
Palmolive invented the term ‘middle-age’ skin in the 1930s and ‘40s. From ‘girls with empty date books’ to wives who ‘lose love’, it could plague women as young as 22. The value of other women’s opinions was more threatening than self-criticism and loathing. Campaign ads in the 1920s depicted women as needing products to spare them the shame of aging.
The Morality of Anti-Aging
In recent years, a new approach has taken over – ‘anti-aging’. Rather than warnings, inspirational women are getting a hold of their appearance. It’s your personal responsibility to ‘tackle’, ‘combat’, and ‘fight against’ aging. Clinical-sounding language explains it as a matter of science. To buy anti-aging products isn’t about shame, but to be wise enough to care. It’s proof that you’ve failed as a person if you show any sign of mortality in your appearance. Soaring demands for cosmetic surgery show how we’re trying to defy our existence.
Self-Acceptance, Co-Opted
Marketing is adapting to this new trend of self-acceptance. The new priorities are all-natural, eco-friendly, and wellness-promoting elements of self-care. Instead of ‘lines and wrinkles’, we’re seeing ‘healthy and radiant skin’. Rebranded euphemisms for ‘young’ sound like ‘renew’, ‘vitality, and ‘radiant’. They still carry the same message, though. Our culture values youth, which isn’t natural or easy.
What if instead of falling for the scare tactics, you thought critically about how aging is a natural part of existing? Instead of fearing getting older, you graciously accepted it as proof you’re still here?
This obsession with anti-aging all starts with our mindset. Are you ready to opt out of the marketing that’s creating endless problems for you to fix? I’d love to set up a free consultation to talk with you about my 1-1 coaching program. You’ll learn to manage your mind, cultivate a peaceful relationship with food, and appreciate your body as the instrument through which you experience life. You’ll also want to grab a free copy of my guide to wellness culture. Remember friends, think critically about your humanness.
