Let's Not Care About Aging Gracefully
Is “aging gracefully” really something we should aspire to? We unpack beauty standards, body image, and the pressure to stay young, and how we can try and avoid passing on these messages to our kids.
What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms · Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson
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Show Notes
What does it really mean to “age gracefully”—and who decided that was the goal in the first place?
We unpack the cultural pressure on women to look younger for longer—and what we can do to resist it. From celebrity beauty standards and the billion-dollar anti-aging industry to the “mask of aging,” we explore why the gap between how we feel and how we look can become so jarring.
We dig into:
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the rise of “stretched middle age” and “looksmaxxing”
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why we compare ourselves to unrealistic, often artificial ideals
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the impact of these messages on our kids—and how to interrupt the cycle
Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:
- Séraphine Roger for Vanity Fair: Short-Haired Demi Moore (And Her Dog) Stun At Gucci
- Kate Manne's Substack More to Hate
- Teresa Karpinska for Vogue: Was the Term “Ageing Gracefully” Coined by Men?
- Sarah Miller for The New Yorker: Desperate for Botox
- Meagan Fredette for W Magazine: Julianne Moore is Sick of the Term “Aging Gracefully”
- Becca Rothfeld for The New Yorker: The Captivating Derangement of the Looksmaxxing Movement
- Amber Wardell, Ph.D., for Psychology Today: The Paradox of Women’s Aging
- Barański, Jarosław for Hybris 32: Mask and Shame of Ageing
- Meredith Jones for The Journal of Popular Culture: “Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery”
What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.
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mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, aging gracefully myth, anti aging culture, women and aging, body image psychology, motherhood and identity, beauty standards media, aging and self image, mask of aging psychology, looksmaxxing trend, female aging pressure, parenting and body image, cultural expectations women, self acceptance aging, modern motherhood podcast
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