Writer/director/producer Justine Bateman (Mallory in Family Ties) is 57 and is examining the aggressive ways that society reacts to the aging of women’s faces.
She is talking about aging and the false narrative our society imposes upon aging women. Take a listen to this great interview and if you are an aging woman, think about what you are afraid of in regards to aging.
Justine also is an author. One of her books is Face: One Square Foot of Skin.
Face is a book of fictional vignettes that examines the fear and vestigial evolutionary habits that have caused women and men to cultivate the imagined reality that older women’s faces are unattractive, undesirable, and something to be “fixed”.
“I would say to any young woman, you’re being lied to,” she said on TODAY. “Who’s making money off of this? You’re being lied to, and you’re being tricked off your path. You’ve got some awesome things coming your way. Just stay on your path, and just ride it out.”
Attitudes are changing because of Hollywood stars like Yeoh, Curtis and Bateman. But we non-celebrities also play a part, too.
If we can’t stop talking about looks altogether, let’s at least stop saying, “You look great — you haven’t aged.”
I tried a similar approach with my friend at the party — something radical. “You look great because you’ve aged,” I told her.
And like that, we changed the dynamic around aging, at least in that moment. Because she agreed with me.