These two talented actors are aged 6 years apart. Hugh Grant at 59 looks as he naturally is, whereas Nicole Kidman at 53 is showing us “youth face”. Authenticity has never more important except for middle aged women & it’s sold to us as “empowerment”. #GenderedAgeism 
From “Love Island” to Caitlin Moran’s new book the message is clear. On screen and in our collective consciousness, ageing is a female “disease to be cured”. Authenticity and diversity can and should exist everywhere, except it seems on a woman’s face. Even games, now “fix” women
That syringe takes normal lips and fills them with chemicals. It’s called “styling” but it isn’t. Girls as young as 14 are now so terrified of ageing that they’re seeking Botox. They see looking older as failure, they see authenticity as transgression.
Self loathing is man made &women enabled. Our obsession with youth is seen as championing an “under represented demographic”. But middle aged men remain fully represented. It’s middle aged women who are “refreshed” with chemically younger versions of ourselves, or by young women.
Onscreen men have a whole life & women have a shelf life. A shelf life eternally tied to how we look. Female empowerment should be allowing women & men to look the age that they’re lucky enough to reach. Our lesson to girls must be more than “You can be anything... except old”
