Let’s Talk About… Looks

A history of vanity

Let’s get something straight. Humans are inherently vain creatures, and the vast majority of us care about the way we look. 

Our ancestors, at least those around since the dawn of recorded civilization, almost always cared about their appearance too. There are detailed records, as well as artifacts, that illustrate men and women in peak physical form, or at least the accepted standard at the time, or wearing the hottest fashions from antiquity until today. There are also depictions of people, presumably those that are later in life, that are not as flattering. Old age is almost always depicted as unstylish or in decline, whether through weathered and wrinkled skin, hunched shoulders, eyeglasses, tattered clothing or mobility devices (e.g. a cane or wheelchair).

In order to combat the ravages of old age and the dry desert heat, Egyptian men and women applied unguent - a substance used to keep the skin hydrated and free of wrinkles - much like serums and moisturizers that we use today. It’s also understood that Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, took a daily bath in sour donkey milk, thought at the time to keep skin youthful in appearance. 

The Chinese Tang Dynasty empress regent Wu Zetian maintained her youthful appearance by washing her face with cold water and applying “fairy powder,” carefully harvested and prepared Chinese motherwort. Women in Elizabethan England, on the other hand, placed thin slices of raw meat on their face. And women in eighteenth-century France took baths in aged wine. 

If there’s one thing that is consistent across history and cultures it is that looks matter.

Economic driver 

An incredible amount of time and energy is put into how individuals present themselves, and a lot of money is spent doing so too. The global gym industry was worth $96.7 billion in 2020, with more than 184 million gym members in total. The global beauty industry dwarfs that, and is worth $511 billion. And, the global fashion industry clocks in at $3 trillion dollars, or about 2% of global GDP.

A growing number of men and women around the world are also taking to plastic surgery to “fix” what physical fitness, hair dye, and make-up and clothes cannot. The global plastic surgery market was estimated at $38.31 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $40.56 Billion by the end of this year, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.21% from 2020 to 2026 to reach $55 billion by 2026. There is a direct correlation between the aging of the population and the growing desire for these services, as well as the growth of industries that can make people look younger, or at least appear healthier. But the big question is, to what end? 

An uneven burden 

More often than not, despite the reality that a growing number of younger men are succumbing to the pressures of maintaining a perfect physical appearance, men get a pass, as they have since the dawn of time. Women are, quite frankly, expected to maintain a youthful appearance throughout their lives if they want to keep a position of relevance and authority in society. 

Sure, our ancestors have always cared about the way they looked, but it wasn’t until the twentieth century that pro-youth and anti-aging messages were amplified. Women, in particular, were bombarded with images of nearly impossible beauty standards that challenged them to fight against the natural aging process, and the earliest advertise- ments were typically driven by the urges of men. The soap company Palmolive created what is perhaps the earliest and most noted example of anti-aging advertising by inventing the problem of “middle-aged” skin. Beauty companies embraced age shaming as core to their success and preyed upon the anxieties brought about by the unrealistic beauty standards that have plagued women for generations.

In her 2019 New Yorker article, Jia Tolentino lamented the homogenization of beauty through the lens of social media, noting, “…the gradual emergence, among professionally beautiful women, of a single, cyborgian face. It’s a young face, of course, with poreless skin and plump, high cheekbones. It has catlike eyes and long, cartoonish lashes; it has a small, neat nose and full, lush lips. It looks at you coyly but blankly, as if its owner has taken half a Klonopin and is considering asking you for a private-jet ride to Coachella.” Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? 

Rotten to the core

A few months ago, supermodel Paulina Porizkova recounted the first time she was knowingly the “victim” of ageism for an LA Magazine article about aging and older consumers. “I got really done up,” she recalled about a night out in Las Vegas, “Tight black dress, plunging neckline, red lips, really high heels. I was walking through the casino, and I thought I looked really hot, like I was sauntering down a runway. But I wasn’t getting noticed.” 

Porizkova, who’s entire world had been built around her looks finally felt herself fading into the background, despite her attempts to slow the physical appearance of aging. While Porizkova has claimed never having had plastic surgery, she has publicly talked about getting plasma pen treatment — a non-invasive procedure that lifts and tightens the skin, often to treat wrinkles around the eyes, which can run into the thousands of dollars.

What’s clear from Porizkova’s experience is that no amount of cosmetic surgery or beauty treatments will change anyone’s life. They surely won’t solve anyone's personal problems, and they definitely won’t stop aging. But they may give individuals greater self-confidence or add to a sense of well-being, at least for a period of time. 

But, I wonder if perhaps this is all for naught, and if humanity’s near constant quest to achieve youthful beauty standards might be getting in the way of our true potential since the line of who’s young and who’s old keeps moving. According to a 2019 report by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 72 percent of facial plastic surgeons have said that they've noticed an increase in patients under 30 years old. Do we all really want to look the same? Lookism, and especially gendered and ageist lookism, are getting in the way of humanity reaching its true social and economic potential.

There’s great power derived from an individual choosing to live an authentic life; it’s liberating to  be one’s true self. A little nip and tuck here and there probably won’t hurt anyone, nor will a bottle of hair dye or a few extra trips to the gym, but when they reinforce ageism or get in the way of healthy behaviors, as well as the normal aging process, we have a problem.