Abstract
Abigail Brooks explores the intersection of femaleness and aging in the United States through a synthesis of interviews with 44 women. The Ways Women Age investigates the meanings that women ascribe to the aging process, as defined by changes in appearance, in addition to the dysphoria oftentimes associated with these changes. Her text wrestles with how age-driven changes are experienced by women who have chosen to use cosmetic intervention, refused such measures, or were undecided about antiaging procedures. In the book’s introduction, Brooks immediately advises that her text is not globally representative of women, given her homogeneous sample of heterosexual, Caucasian respondents. Despite this limitation, Brooks notes that her sample does, in fact, reflect the typical consumers of antiaging intervention.
The text recalls the inextricable link between beauty and the beholder, with many interview subjects articulating that their perception of self is bound to their interpretation of the male gaze. It becomes evident that the U.S. culture has not yet deracinated the patriarchy. While the women express polarized positions across multiple components of aging, there is consensus across participants that the worth of a female is dictated first and foremost by male appraisal. The concept of the aging body was consistently discussed in relation to men, with women often referencing the need to come to terms with the loss of the male gaze as they age. When Brooks shares stories of the invisibility experienced by her respondents, she exposes the meaning assigned by the patriarchy to anyone without reproductive viability.
The text is not void of the author’s own judgment and opinion, visible in the stark contrast between her depictions of women choosing or refusing antiaging intervention. In the second and fourth chapters, Brooks conveys the experiences of women who chose cosmetic intervention as one-dimensional figures obsessed with youthful beauty, devoid of any other substantive character. There are no excerpts from interviews with these women speaking to a concept other than beauty, youth, the male gaze, or cosmetic intervention. Comparatively, Brooks offers a more holistic view of the women who have chosen to age naturally, humanizing these subjects as multifaceted individuals, describing their other hobbies and meaningful pursuits.
References to women choosing cosmetic intervention are uniform and seem to only exacerbate an image of superficiality. The portrayal of women who choose cosmetic intervention appears incomplete particularly in comparison to the other interview subjects in the text. Consequently, it becomes difficult to disentangle the author’s judgment from the reality of these women. Whether the glaring differences between women who chose cosmetic intervention and those who refused are a product of nonuniform questioning methods (as the interview questions were not listed in the methods section of the text) remain ambiguous. The women who use cosmetic intervention seem to have been denied the opportunity to display aspects of themselves outside of their choice to employ cosmetic intervention whereas the women who have refused are allotted multiple opportunities to depict themselves as multidimensional beings.
The consequence of this image is that it seems to conflate a woman’s choice to use cosmetic intervention with her identity. Although the origins of antiaging intervention embody patriarchal notions of beauty, it seems ineffective to reprimand consumers and label them as superficial. The text risks widening the divide between women who use and those who refuse cosmetic intervention. With the rate of technological advancement in the United States and the continuation of patriarchal norms of femininity, there is no foreseeable end to cosmetic intervention. Thus, polarization will inspire no change in the cultural norms that commodify youth. A stand can be taken to minimize harm from a youth-focused culture without reducing women to a single choice: to consume or refuse cosmetic intervention. In sum, the author gives voice to the experiences of women facing age-driven changes, but she does not provide equitable opportunity for the participants in her study choosing cosmetic intervention to present themselves as more than their patterns of consumption of antiaging interventions. From a social work perspective, this text offers a singular narrative that fails to invoke an understanding of a person in context.