Women in Hollywood aren’t encouraged to reflect life experience in their faces… Which is rather ironic considering their faces become “faces” because they’re expected to do just that; inhabit a role, transform, emote, reflect, take us on life’s journey… You get the picture.
Here’s “the journey” depicted in the work of John Singer Sargent. I see beauty in every phase.
There is a lushness to youth; big features, skin plump, life pliable and ready to be written in the eyes…
And, this is the stage plastic surgery sets the standard by…
Jaw firm, cheeks high, skin taught… Done subtly, it’s fine. Done repeatedly or extremely the results are cartoon-like, and a life’s experience erased to resemble a plasticine robot. You know who I’m talking about. The thing about cosmetic procedures, from laser facials to going under the knife, is to do it sparingly — there’s no going back if you go too far. Apple cheeks look weird on a fifty year-old, over-lasered GLOSSY skin looks bizarre on anyone, too many tugs and your eyes look like an alien’s, bridge of your nose shaved too much: Kardashian. Babies let the beauty unfold…
Suffragette, composer, author, it’s all there in her face, probably in her late forties:
This woman was a force to be reckoned with, first woman to qualify as an M.D. in Great Britain and France, a surgeon, founded a hospital, became dean of a college and served as a Mayor and Magistrate, also a first in her native country. Tell me you don’t see the strength and age in her face…
I am currently hunting down this Lady’s memoirs because I know she had stories to tell, you can see it…look at those eyes…
As a close confidante to Queen Mary, Lady Airlie was a close observer of the fluctuating relationships within the British Royal Family, and detailed her reminiscences about them in her memoirs, which were unfinished at the time of her death (at the age of 90 in 1956). They were later discovered by Jennifer Ellis, who edited and published them as Thatched with Gold: The Memoirs of Mabell, Countess of Airlie in 1962.
via Mabell Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Wouldn’t it be nice if women in Hollywood were allowed to tell their stories and look their age? Well…hold on a second… Let’s hear it for Diane Keaton, actress, architectural preservationist; pictured here accepting an award on a director’s behalf at the Golden Globes. Now my darlings, hers is a beautiful exception to the Hollywood rule – so refreshing:
