CHRONICLE – Faced with the wave of frozen foreheads, flattened cheeks and over-swollen mouths seen on the festival steps, we wonder if women will one day have the right to age in peace.
When we think of the Cannes Film Festival, we immediately think of cinema and glamour. Watching the stairs go up and commenting on the outfits of the actors and especially the actresses is a fairly common tradition among the French. But this year, beyond the trains and sequins, it’s not so much the outfit that stands out outfit. On the faces of women on the red carpet. It’s as if a form of shameful conformism has fallen on the actresses. High, smooth cheekbones, frozen foreheads, ridiculously full lips. On the red carpet, where Alain Shabbat’s nonsense, white hair and a cigarette in his mouth amuse us, Demi Moore’s head, closer to a Grevin Museum-style wax mask than a woman in her sixties, overwhelms us. .
In 2024, a woman cannot grow old calmly and with wrinkles. In order to be considered beautiful, she must apply for surgery or aesthetic medicine. We knew the devastation, but Cannes makes us appreciate it. Almost none of the women on the red carpet, except for a few young premieres, seemed to be able to bear the mark of time. Because even those who are far from “needing it”, that is, young people with skin that does not yet have scars, sometimes already resort to scalpels or injections. Surgeons, who now abound on social networks, urge to start as soon as possible. There is no age limit or social background anymore. The biggest consumers of aesthetic procedures are 18-34 years old, and the prices have become more affordable. And when the official route remains too expensive, parallel networks operate, causing dramatic damage to the acquisition of rejuvenation funds.
Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images for Red Sea Interna
Machist clichés
For men, the ratio is opposite. On the Cannes red carpet for The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann, who overused his interventions to the point of looking like a strange creature, we see most men parade their age without complications. In the year 2024, despite powerful speeches from the likes of the great Andy McDowell advocating for women’s right to age naturally with their gray hair and skin not artificially counteracting the effects of time, nothing seems to be moving forward. We still contrast the freshness of a newbie with the wrinkles of more mature actresses. Because of a societal discourse ingrained from childhood that says women over 35 feel obligated to pose for photographers, get botox sessions or hyaluronic acid injections. As if their feminine confidence depended on it.
Let’s be clear that it is not the approach of these women who are still victims of male society that we should condemn. This idea is still written in the minds of all, cis and trans men, women, that beauty is one with youth. That wrinkle destroys and does not beautify. As we approach our forties, we all begin to ask ourselves, do I have to go through with this? What happens when everyone around me does it but me? What does this say about my feminine, feminist beliefs? As the end of the festival approaches, we are not alone in wondering. In a magazine editorial Chat room , reporter Sarah Gandilot wonders what these bodies that don’t want to age say about women’s liberation. Where Cannes may have been at the forefront of accurately showing how women are just as beautiful as men when they grow up, the Croisette show paints a very poor picture of the current state of women. Damage:
Source: Le Figaro
