March is Womenâs History Month, and with all the hype surrounding Demi Mooreâs film The Substance, I thought it was fitting to discuss this timely debate: is plastic surgery ultimately feminist? Recent conversations with friends have quickly turned to our insecurities, and what we would do about them. Some have casually mentioned the cosmetic procedures they desire in the near future, most of them minor ones colloquially termed âtweakmentsâ. Procedures include lip fillers, botox, and even jaw surgery, to my complete surprise. Am I really the odd one out for feeling anxious about the direction Gen-Z is heading when it comes to medically changing our bodies?
My friends are all completely gorgeous and do not need them. But this is a moot point. It does not matter how beautiful we are, as beauty is so subjective. The real issue here is our absolute fear of ageing. Age in the past used to be celebrated, revered, sought after. It was a visual reminder of someoneâs health, that they had managed to survive for so long. Brown spots on frail hands, smile lines creasing like the ripples on a lake, silvery hair that shimmers in dappled sunlight – these are all things I want to look forward to, to trace the map of my well-lived life. When Maggie Smith modeled for Loewe shortly before she died at the age of 89, it was wonderfully refreshing to see a face reflecting the years of talent, wit and beauty that the actress had accumulated. My reaction to seeing age celebrated in mainstream media was very emotional, it took me by surprise. But maybe this was because we have so few popular examples of age, especially female age, to reflect on.Â
So really, I donât blame my generation for seeking âprejuvenationâ procedures, as some in the media are dubbing it. How can we be excited to age, when everything we consume is telling us that aging should be reversed at all costs? The statistics for the popularity of cosmetic procedures are frightening. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, nearly 25.4 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in 2023 in the US. These include neuromodulator injections (e.g. botox), hyaluronic acid fillers and lip injections. This is a 7% rise from the previous year, and more concerningly, groups aged 20-29 and 30-39 both saw more than an 8% increase. There is no doubt that this troubling rise in minor cosmetic procedures has social media to thank. Just opening instagram or TikTok will bombard you with faces that look eerily similar, sporting the tell-tale trout lips and lack of facial creases. I find it incredibly disturbing that we are now so concerned with fitting in, that we mess with perfectly healthy bodies in irreversible ways to do so.
There is an argument that in this body positive era, celebrities and influencers are doing good by being open about the cosmetic procedures they have undergone. I admit, it is relieving to learn that those noses arenât natural, or that these eyelids have been surgically enhanced. But, as Martha Gill of the Guardian points out, being more transparent also ânormalises plastic surgery and encourages more people into these risky procedures.â If we werenât bombarded with videos about all sorts of cosmetic enhancements all day every day, would we even be thinking about them at all? Would my friends, at 21, still want to change their lips, their jaw, their boobs, if they were instead surrounded by more images of Maggie Smiths, celebrating age in all its glory?Â
There is a danger in becoming so preoccupied with erasing invisible future lines. Often I catch myself stressing over a new smile line, or forehead crease, because I think this will make me look too old. But what if that is just what I am supposed to look like? This is what nature wants for me. All younger generations have become desensitized to what real ages look like on real people, and it is making us more stressed than ever. Surely looking better shouldnât make us feel worse? But somehow it does, because the standard is being raised higher and higher, and no ordinary woman can ever catch up.
So to conclude, is plastic surgery, or any cosmetic procedure done purely for vanity, feminist? Some say yes, because we are allowing people (who are mostly women) to change their bodies in order to make themselves feel good. But a line has to be drawn somewhere, and ultimately something that criticises natural womenâs bodies and the normal ageing process cannot be considered feminist.