subject: The last normal woman on the planet? [print this page] I ama forty-eight years old woman with her fair share of wrinkles. Not just feint lines, but actually some quite deep grooves under my eyes for which I hold a very hot holiday in Barbados responsible.Try as I would to apply factor 100 to my face, it just kept melting and running off my chin. However, this is the face I deserve. I have not been excessively abusive to my skin. I have looked after it fairly well. My wrinkles are part of who I am, and actually I find it quite fascinating watching my face change as the years tick by.
It appears though that I may be alone in my resolute acceptance of my ageing face. Apparently more and more women are turning to invastive and expensive beauty treatments as they witness the horrors ofageing skin in front of their eyes.Wrinkles, lines, crows feet, age spots, saggy chins ... all are being obliterated with knives and needles in the quest of ageless beauty.All this is no doubt as a result of therelentless stream of gorgeous, youthful celebritiesplastered all over our televisions, newspapers and magazines.We are made to feel that having a naturally older face is something to be ashamed of, or hidden away.Our choice as women is to hide our wrinkled faces away in shame, orgo with the masses and book an appointment with the needle and knife masters NOW.
However, take a close look as these celebrities. Their once beautiful faces are no longer beautiful. They may not be wrinkly and saggy, but they aren't attractive.Those women who become addicted to beauty treatmentssoon start to have that strangely staring, distorted look. Their faces look rearranged,the symmetry has gone and they look odd. Whythough are we accepting these faces as being good thing? Why doesn't anyone ever ask these women why they have so brutally destroyed their natural beauty? Are wrinkles and ageing really so bad that we are now prepared to subject ourselves tothese disfiguring treatments as an alternative?
I for one will not. My face does not deserve such treatment.If I am the only woman left on the planet with a natural face, then so be it. I will then be the celebrity. I will become a freak, the only example ofthe visible signs of ageing on a human woman. But, I may also be the only healthy woman left on the planet. Botox and other fillers are largely unresearched. The long-term effects have never really been properly investigated. And surgery itself is never without risk. When I look in the mirror when I am 65, freak or not, I will at least know that Iam not a fake. I will not be a cheat. I will be me.
