The New Face of Beauty

April 19, 2012

Women…Stand up and unite! The face of beauty is changing and the trend is slowly moving towards allowing ourselves to be real again. We are beginning to establish a new yardstick by which to measure our looks and how we portray ourselves, in the world, and in the media.

As we baby boomers move through life we bring with us money (read buying power), our self absorption about our looks, and our refusal to age like our parents. And, as we watch our over processed peers on todays reality TV shows, we are finally starting to refuse to succumb to past standards of beauty; Waif like figures, with too much botox and a continual fight to look under 40 when we are not.

This trend is emerging from two fronts. The first, by iconic women who are standing up and refusing to let the media dictate what we should look like. Take for example 43 year old Ashley Judd’s recent slap at the media for their brutal comments and false statements about her use of cosmetic procedures and the state of her marriage due to a small weight gain.

And, Madison Ave. is following the money and beginning to show beautiful women over 40! Take the famous Mac cosmetic company’s bold move to use Ms. Iris Apfel (age 90) as their face for a line of fabulously colored lipsticks and eye color that she made her own personal statement decades ago.

And Dove, a company that is using real women, of all ages and shapes, to advertise their product! Other women advertising products at an older age are Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Ellen DeGeneres.

Magazine cover girls are now such inspirations as Meryl Streep, the oldest woman to date to appear on the cover of Vogue. And models, well models aren’t all under 30…or 40  anymore. Think of Cindy Joseph (54 and grey, thank you very much), 83 year old Daphne Selfe, Maye Musk at 53, and 63 year old Pia Gronning to name a few.

And yes, full figured women from Adele on the cover of Vogue, to models like Christina Mendez are also coming to the fore rapidly!

Last week on Facebook I ran across Patti Friday’s thoughtful blog post on this trend to becoming more of ourselves naturally.  She included the video below from the Today’s show on this very topic. It’s a bit longer then most video’s I post, but I think it’s worth the watch. Check it out below. And check out Part 2 of the New Face of Beauty too!

It seems a bit silly to me that we women haven’t stood up for this before, don’t you think? Come on women…let’s spread a little bit of authentic beauty in the world by being content with ourselves as we are!

 Where does real beauty really come from? I invite you to have this conversation with your mothers, your sisters, your friends, your daughters and nieces. What do you think?