Societal Pressures on Women and Aging

The girlies confront one of humanity’s oldest anxieties — our fear of aging. From Cleopatra’s donkey milk baths to ten-year-old girls putting Drunk Elephant eye creams on their Christmas lists, they explore how women have always been encouraged to prolong youth at their own expense. Digressions include *that* horrifying NYT article, mixed feelings about going grey, and some treasured wisdom from our older binchies.

SOURCES:

• Anti-Aging Medicine: The History: Life Extension and History: The Continual Search for the Fountain of Youth
• Babies’ skin is already perfect. Dior wants to sell them a skincare line
• Charting: A Brief History of Anti-Aging
• History Lesson: Centuries Of Anti-Aging Products
• Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body 
• No Truth to the Fountain of Youth
• The Craziest Things People Have Done to Try and Stay Young
• The Double Standard of Aging by Susan Sontag
• The “Invisibility” War on Older Women
• The 10-Year-Olds Using Drunk Elephant Beauty Products
• 'There's no ethical way to sell products that target signs of aging'
• They Always Say the Younger You Start, the Better
• Powerless in the Face of Beauty: Helena Rubinstein at the Jewish Museum
• Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl
• Why Americans Are Uniquely Afraid to Grow Old 
• Woman in Retrograde
• Women, Power, and Aging: An Introduction