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Watched the Oscars over at a friends' place last night. They run this every year, including a tipping comp which I toss my hat in the ring but usually end up with the wooden spoon because I don't know what I'm voting for most of the time.
Anyway, this year, the bit that really disturbed me was The Substance with Demi Moore. After the opening sequence for the Oscars and several of the shorts for it, I went looking for an explanation of what the movie was about. If you don't already know, it's about image, the sense of self, but done in a body horror context, and...well, let's just go with my reaction to the plot: EEK.
For the record, I haven't watched many movies lately - the last one I watched was 'The Wild Robot' which was animated so one didn't have faces to look at. But seeing many of the actresses either announcing the awards or being shown in the audience made me realise that I don't really have a metric for 'women aging gracefully' when it comes to people whose whole livelihood centres around their appearance.
I know what aging looks like in myself - my hands, reminiscent of my mother's when I was in my 20s and she was in her 50s. Only now, I'm in my 40s, and she's in her 70s. And I see her hands from when I was twenty, and I look at her hands now and think that someday that will be me, too (if I live as long).
Pamela Anderson caused a major stir when she 'reappeared' in the public eye about a year ago, minimal make up and unabashedly aged - very different from the bleached blonde, busty, smooth-skinned, full-lipped icon that she used to be. I'll admit, it takes some getting used to for me: I look at her and my brain doesn't immediately connect her to 'Pamela Anderson', but that's not a commentary or a judgement on how she looks now, that's a commentary on my mental association with the name and the physicality she had thirty years ago.
It's an expectation we carry of women, that they'll stay 'young looking' until they're not, until they fade out from view and we don't have to look at them anymore.
In the same way, looking at Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn, and Meg Ryan was an experience of surprise because I haven't an been following them over the years, so I wasn't expecting to see them aged. And while there's a part of me that wonders if they've had work done, there's a part of me that points out that it doesn't matter - we can't control time and flesh, no matter how hard we try.
But it was kind of sad seeing Goldie Hawn in particular, dressed in something that was not far from the stuff the younger actresses were wearing, and feeling the comparison in a distinctly uncomfortable way - all the more as Hawn seemed not entirely there. Andrew Garfield was lovely as her co-host for that award, talking about how his mother admired Goldie Hawn so much, and how privileged he felt to be on stage with her.
I didn't feel that awkwardness when I saw the actress who came out with ScarJo - an older woman who cheerfully declared she was in fact at home sipping a cup of tea while someone else was playing her on the stage, standing next to ScarJo, right at this minute. It was a little odd, but also quirky. And maybe it helped that I didn't feel like this woman had tried to preserve her youth, but just decided that she was going to fly her personality flag high and go for broke.
(Having just looked her up, I discovered she's June Squibb, and it looks like her acting roles throughout the ages has never been about her being a beauty but rather about her being a character. That undoubtedly helps.)
Essentially, the plot is that an aging actress desperate takes a substance that splits her body into 'old her' and 'young her'. The consciousnesses inside the two bodies need to swap every seven days, and the new body is maintained by drawing some kind of fluids from the old and...well, it goes about as well as one would expect.
I'm not going to watch it. I have no intention of watching it. I do not want to watch it.
But one of the things that the movie apparently talks about is the disgust that the aging actress has for her body. Which...I do get at one level, but I don't at another. I am one of those individuals who looks a fair bit younger than I actually am. Life has so far been good to me. While I do feel regret at my body as it ages, its mostly that I didn't appreciate the body I had when I was younger.
Then again, I also don't have multiple images and perceptions of me as a young woman, immortalised in the prime of youth. The people that I knew when I was young have similarly aged. The people that I met as I have aged, have only ever known me as I am.
What I've glimpsed of the movie is...disturbing, though. Kind of horrific, which it's supposed to be. But also...really difficult for me to get out of my brain right now.
I'm not sure where this is going, only that I'm feeling...kind of odd right now. Nostalgic? Maybe. Aged? Possibly? I don't even have words for it, but something about watching those clips of The Substance really did a number on my brain.
What's those lines from Pirates of the Caribbean?
It's interesting; I don't use movies to inform me about new ideas about the world. I get that from...everywhere else. Reading articles. Links that people post. People's personal experiences relayed through social media, or blogs, or newsletters...
Movies and books? I want escapism. Fun. Happy heroic stories. And so mostly I'm not interested in the 'serious bizniz' of the Oscars or movies. Too disturbing for my state of being.
But it was nice to go over and watch the show with friends. It's always better doing things with friends.
Anyway, this year, the bit that really disturbed me was The Substance with Demi Moore. After the opening sequence for the Oscars and several of the shorts for it, I went looking for an explanation of what the movie was about. If you don't already know, it's about image, the sense of self, but done in a body horror context, and...well, let's just go with my reaction to the plot: EEK.
For the record, I haven't watched many movies lately - the last one I watched was 'The Wild Robot' which was animated so one didn't have faces to look at. But seeing many of the actresses either announcing the awards or being shown in the audience made me realise that I don't really have a metric for 'women aging gracefully' when it comes to people whose whole livelihood centres around their appearance.
I know what aging looks like in myself - my hands, reminiscent of my mother's when I was in my 20s and she was in her 50s. Only now, I'm in my 40s, and she's in her 70s. And I see her hands from when I was twenty, and I look at her hands now and think that someday that will be me, too (if I live as long).
Pamela Anderson caused a major stir when she 'reappeared' in the public eye about a year ago, minimal make up and unabashedly aged - very different from the bleached blonde, busty, smooth-skinned, full-lipped icon that she used to be. I'll admit, it takes some getting used to for me: I look at her and my brain doesn't immediately connect her to 'Pamela Anderson', but that's not a commentary or a judgement on how she looks now, that's a commentary on my mental association with the name and the physicality she had thirty years ago.
It's an expectation we carry of women, that they'll stay 'young looking' until they're not, until they fade out from view and we don't have to look at them anymore.
In the same way, looking at Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn, and Meg Ryan was an experience of surprise because I haven't an been following them over the years, so I wasn't expecting to see them aged. And while there's a part of me that wonders if they've had work done, there's a part of me that points out that it doesn't matter - we can't control time and flesh, no matter how hard we try.
But it was kind of sad seeing Goldie Hawn in particular, dressed in something that was not far from the stuff the younger actresses were wearing, and feeling the comparison in a distinctly uncomfortable way - all the more as Hawn seemed not entirely there. Andrew Garfield was lovely as her co-host for that award, talking about how his mother admired Goldie Hawn so much, and how privileged he felt to be on stage with her.
I didn't feel that awkwardness when I saw the actress who came out with ScarJo - an older woman who cheerfully declared she was in fact at home sipping a cup of tea while someone else was playing her on the stage, standing next to ScarJo, right at this minute. It was a little odd, but also quirky. And maybe it helped that I didn't feel like this woman had tried to preserve her youth, but just decided that she was going to fly her personality flag high and go for broke.
(Having just looked her up, I discovered she's June Squibb, and it looks like her acting roles throughout the ages has never been about her being a beauty but rather about her being a character. That undoubtedly helps.)
okay this part is about body horror: The Substance
Essentially, the plot is that an aging actress desperate takes a substance that splits her body into 'old her' and 'young her'. The consciousnesses inside the two bodies need to swap every seven days, and the new body is maintained by drawing some kind of fluids from the old and...well, it goes about as well as one would expect.
I'm not going to watch it. I have no intention of watching it. I do not want to watch it.
But one of the things that the movie apparently talks about is the disgust that the aging actress has for her body. Which...I do get at one level, but I don't at another. I am one of those individuals who looks a fair bit younger than I actually am. Life has so far been good to me. While I do feel regret at my body as it ages, its mostly that I didn't appreciate the body I had when I was younger.
Then again, I also don't have multiple images and perceptions of me as a young woman, immortalised in the prime of youth. The people that I knew when I was young have similarly aged. The people that I met as I have aged, have only ever known me as I am.
What I've glimpsed of the movie is...disturbing, though. Kind of horrific, which it's supposed to be. But also...really difficult for me to get out of my brain right now.
I'm not sure where this is going, only that I'm feeling...kind of odd right now. Nostalgic? Maybe. Aged? Possibly? I don't even have words for it, but something about watching those clips of The Substance really did a number on my brain.
What's those lines from Pirates of the Caribbean?
Barbossa: The world used to be a bigger place.
Jack Sparrow: The world's still the same. There's just...less in it.
It's interesting; I don't use movies to inform me about new ideas about the world. I get that from...everywhere else. Reading articles. Links that people post. People's personal experiences relayed through social media, or blogs, or newsletters...
Movies and books? I want escapism. Fun. Happy heroic stories. And so mostly I'm not interested in the 'serious bizniz' of the Oscars or movies. Too disturbing for my state of being.
But it was nice to go over and watch the show with friends. It's always better doing things with friends.
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