Celebrity Beauty Expectations & Cosmetic Surgery: Women versus Men

Last night’s Oscars gave me cause for thought as to the unequal expectations for aging that we as a society place by gender. Often, the expectations for a celebrity, or celebrities, may offer insight into our societal expectations as a whole. As a cosmetic plastic surgeon, I offer remedies to minimize and slow the appearance of aging, but overwhelmingly, and unsurprisingly, my patient population is female. Many women try to control the aging process carefully, and in today’s medically-advanced, minimally-invasive world, that is very possible. However, expectations for the appearance of men as they age are quite different, and arguably there may even be a positive connotation to looking more aged physically to appear “distinguished”.

I am a fan of the actor Christopher Plummer, but I think the image to the left perfectly demonstrates the disparate beauty standards that exist between genders. Pictured at a similar age of approximately 80, Ms. Fonda and Mr. Plummer have aged entirely differently, but both continue to be cast in mainstream, large-scale projects. This signals, at least partially, that their appearances both remain aesthetically pleasing to an audience, and it is fantastic that the ageism of Hollywood may be diminishing. However, Mr. Plummer has a significant amount of sun damage and looks approximately as I would expect an 80yr old to look. He has even recently been described as looking “good for his age”, and my initial reaction, likely due to my own gender bias, is that he does look pretty good for an octogenarian and that he is an overall handsome man.

However, compared at the same age to Jane Fonda, Mr. Plummer simply looks old. As she appeared last night on the red carpet at the 2018 Academy Awards, Ms. Fonda could be age 50? 60? She has in the past publicly discussed undergoing cosmetic plastic surgery, possibly a face lift as it is difficult to achieve an angular jawline at that age without one. Perhaps, she has also undergone various injectables such as Botox for her forehead, dermal fillers like Juvederm or Voluma to address midface descent / flattening and nasolabial fold formation. She is also wearing professionally applied makeup, of course. Nonetheless, beneath her makeup, she would still look great for her age. Sun damage, especially unaddressed, would otherwise cause her skin to sag and form deep furrows by age 80 – difficult issues to hide with makeup. As a side note, Ms. Fonda’s decolletage is particularly spectacular given that earlier in the 20th century, most of the population did not regularly wear sunscreen. Ms. Fonda could be a model for the efficacy of laser resurfacing!** Whatever her remedies, she has been smart and performed careful maintenance of her appearance throughout life.

Much of our perception of beauty is subconscious. The aging process does take its toll in orderly, well-defined ways very apparent to a plastic surgeon like myself, but for most of us, how we form an estimate of a stranger’s age is difficult to quantify. From the obvious markers like grey hair, sun spots, and wrinkles down to the subtle loss of youthful fat and volume in various areas of the face, a combination of attributes contributes to our perception of beauty and age.

As a “beauty” doctor and plastic surgeon, I’m not going to advocate that everyone just head out into the sun without sunscreen and age without care (I help everyone age like Jane!), but I think it is clear that Ms. Fonda was not kept to the same societal standard as Mr. Plummer. She looks stunning, and whatever our societal ideals for beauty, we should hold men and women to the same standard. As with all bias, if you find yourself assuming that a woman with grey hair is “old” or a man with a wrinkled face is “distinguished but good-looking”, try to examine where those conclusions came from.

** I have not examined the medical records of either Ms. Fonda or Mr. Plummer, nor have I treated them at any time.

Photo credits: Top Image – AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA, Comparison Image – Hollywood Life and API