Sadly in this day and age (!) ‘ageing’ is often paired with ‘anti’, but it shouldn\u2019t always have to be. We dispel the myths and explore our cultural obsession with the eternal quest for youth.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Ageing is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been\u2019 – David Bowie<\/p>\n
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\u2018Wrinkles will only go where smiles have been\u2019 – Jimmy Buffet<\/p>\n
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\u2018We are always the same age inside\u2019 – Gertrude Stein<\/p>\n
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\u2018Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!\u2019 – Ingrid Bergman<\/p>\n
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Some guy said to me: \u2018Don\u2019t you think you\u2019re too old to sing rock n\u2019 roll?\u2019 I said: \u2018You\u2019d better check with Mick Jagger\u2019 – Cher<\/p>\n
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\u2018The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles\u2019 – Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/p>\n
\u2018Age is simply the number of years the world has been enjoying you!\u2019 – Unknown<\/p>\n
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As we are now in a booming anti-ageing culture, we have become highly uncomfortable with the ageing process, and many of us have lost the ability to embrace it. Where does this come from? Is it down to our own insecurities? Is society pressuring us to stay young? Or is it just our desire to turn back the clock that is nevertheless ticking away? We have always been told to respect our elders, yet becoming elderly is portrayed in the media as such a frightening way of life.<\/p>\n
Many people are deciding to hide the ageing process through plastic surgery and Botox. Is this down to vanity, or is there a deeper reason? The profitability of companies that benefit from this feeling pray on our insecurities and make us doubt one of the most natural parts of life. Let\u2019s look at how the anti-ageing culture of today is really affecting our society.<\/p>\n
The desire to want to look good shows great self-confidence. You actually care enough about yourself to want to make a good impression on the people you meet. However, it\u2019s good to enjoy the experience of taking care of your looks, but it\u2019s another thing entirely to feel obligated to stay youthful in order to be deemed worthy.<\/p>\n
On a more positive note, 40% of women say they find it easier to speak their mind now that they\u2019re older, 35% of women don\u2019t try so hard to impress others, and 1 in 3 women think one of the main advantages of ageing is increased confidence. This brings us full circle! Caring about how you look is a great sign of self-confidence, but just being yourself and not caring what anyone else thinks also shows confidence. The point is, it doesn\u2019t matter how you are choosing to age, as long as you are happy with your decision and are doing the right thing for you, not anyone else.<\/p>\n
The most obvious way people are exposed to the anti-ageing culture is through social media. Studies show that social media makes women in particular feel insecure and self-conscious about the way they look. However, what you see on the surface of social media doesn\u2019t always match what\u2019s happening deep down. People curate what they want their life to look like to others on social media, but when you\u2019re the person looking at their photos, all you see is the life you don\u2019t have. You may see someone online who has glowing skin and zero wrinkles. Don\u2019t get me wrong, some people have amazing genes, but at a certain age you are going to get wrinkles, and that\u2019s okay. What you don\u2019t see when looking at that person\u2019s social media is how much work, effort, and money they have put into looking the way they do. And before you start analysing why you don\u2019t look like your Instagrammable counterparts be safe in the knowledge that that is NOT what people actually look like anyway! According to The Modems in a Case 24 survey of 3,000 UK residents, a staggering 71% of people edit their selfies before uploading! A further 54% change imperfections on their skin and 33% edit their lips. Staggering!<\/p>\n
Nowadays, \u2018getting work done\u2019 has become almost normalised in our society, so when older women say that they haven\u2019t had anything done, it\u2019s seen as shocking. However, there are still many older women out there choosing to embrace their age. Lots of celebrities have spoken out about their opinion on the subject of getting older and had some interesting things to say, especially about being role models for the younger generation. Drew Barrymore has expressed, \u201cI\u2019m now determined more than ever to show my daughters that ageing is a luxury\u2019. Similarly, Reese Witherspoon said, \u2018I just feel like I earned that grey hair and my fine lines. I like \u2018em\u2019. The common theme with all the women who have spoken about how they are embracing their age is perspective. They know that they\u2019re not going to look like they did when they were 25 at 55, and they also know that that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n
The fear of aging disproportionately affects women, but sadly it\u2019s not just women, young girls are affected too.<\/p>\n
While doing research for this article I saw that a question commonly being searched online was \u2018How can we prevent ageing at a young age?\u2019. Although this isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, it also proposes the question, why are young girls worried about ageing? There is enough to worry about when you\u2019re a teenager, and now the fear of ageing is added to that. The answer to that question online offered some great advice like, protect your skin from the sun, moisturise, don\u2019t smoke and stay out of tanning beds. However, it also said \u2018Avoid repetitive facial movements, like squinting, frowning\u2026\u2019. This applies not only to young girls, but to any person out there, why would you want to avoid showing your emotions on your face out of fear of aging? If you want to cry, cry. If you want to smile, smile. You only get one life, so enjoy today for what it is. Here are what two teenage girls had to say on this issue:<\/p>\n
How does seeing edited pictures on social media affect how you see yourself?<\/p>\n
Emma, 15: \u2018It doesn\u2019t really phase me to be honest, I usually just swipe or click away\u2019.<\/p>\n
Katie, 18: \u2018It makes me feel as if there are unrealistic expectations on what I\u2019m supposed to look like, and it makes me feel bad about myself being compared to the edited photos\u2019.<\/p>\n
How do you view plastic surgery and Botox?<\/p>\n
Shana, 13: \u2018I don\u2019t agree with it, but if one of my friends were to want it, I would support them\u2019.<\/p>\n
Katie went on to say: \u2018I think that those things are unnecessary as everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin, however, the influence of social media has caused people to believe that the only way to look good is if they stay young and fill yourself with these toxic chemicals \u2013 I think that being beautiful is about owning who you are and loving yourself for that exact reason\u2019.<\/p>\n
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BOXOUT<\/p>\n
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POSTING A \u2018NO MAKE-UP SELFIE\u2019 IS CONSIDERED A REVOLUTIONARY ACT<\/p>\n
In an attempt to expose this growing trend, the British fashion photographer John Rankin Waddell, launched a social experiment which he aptly named \u201cSelfie Harm\u201d. In this series, Rankin asked 15 teenagers to edit and retouch portraits of themselves until they considered the photos to be \u201csocial media ready\u201d. The results were truly shocking. Displayed next to each other, Rankin\u2019s untouched portraits show naturally beautiful women against cartoonish and doll-like caricatures. Bulging eyes and pouty lips, feature in these retouched photographs, highlighting the sad reality of beauty standards in a social media obsessed world. These portraits are of course a by-product of wider mental health issues relating to social media, such as body dysmorphia and social anxiety. We are trained by these standards of beauty to not only hide our flaws, but to blur them out completely.<\/p>\n
Rankin has said that this cult of the selfie is \u201cjust another reason why we are living in a world of FOMO, sadness, increased anxiety, and Snapchat dysmorphia\u201d.<\/p>\n
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THE ANSWER<\/p>\n
If you really care about how you look stay out of the sun! According to scientists at EPA in the US 90% of visible skin changes commonly attributed to ageing are caused by the sun. With proper protection from UV radiation, most premature aging of the skin can be avoided guys and girls! Don\u2019t smoke, eat healthily and exercise. Researchers at the University of Birmingham and King’s College London have found that staying active keeps the body young and healthy. The Brigham Young University study also found that people who ran 30 to 40 minutes at high intensity five days a week were consistently biologically younger than those who followed more moderate exercise programs, or who led sedentary lifestyles. Oh and don\u2019t take too much notice of unattainable social media \u2013 no one looks like that anyway!<\/p>\n
By Pia Louisa & Sam Matthews<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sadly in this day and age (!) ‘ageing’ is often paired with ‘anti’, but it shouldn\u2019t always have to be. We dispel the myths and explore our cultural obsession with the eternal quest for youth. \u2018Ageing is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been\u2019 – David Bowie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"yoast_head":"\n