Vanity Fair magazine’s slick February 2007 cover features actress Demi Moore sprawled out in a fluffy, white bathrobe, sporting gold slippers and holding a hat reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn. The headline? “Demi Moore—Her Husband, Her Body and Why She Never Ages.”…Never ages?
At first blush, the magazine seems to be using this celebrity baby boomer to send us gals that familiar message: “Whatever you do in life, ladies please don’t get wrinkles, and don’t get old.” Admittedly, many women probably wouldn’t complain if they look like Moore does (cosmetic surgery or not) at age 45. “She’s beyond beautiful everywhere,” says photographer Mario Testino, “Face, body, hair, hands, feet, the ankles, the wrists.” Indeed, this glamorous boomer has spent (by some cosmetic surgeons’ estimates) over $300,000 in fighting the inevitable sags and bags of aging.
It begs the question: Where, if anywhere, do boomers draw the line in cosmetic nips and tucks? We’ve all likely seen a few women who should have quit while they were ahead…and men for that matter (Michael Jackson springs to mind). Do we adopt the feminist’s party line that women 42+ (and even younger women) shouldn’t have to live up to America’s youth-obsessed and unrealistic physical standards? Is the magazine ageist?
Perhaps Vanity Fair’s headline suggests something else. Moore, after all, has revived her career, married a hunk 20 years her junior and found more “spiritual focus” as she’s aged, according to reporter Krista Smith. She’s also clearly not afraid to admit that image matters to her—both for professional reasons, and I would guess, for personal ones. Beyond the magazine’s shiny veneer, its pages reveal that Moore is doing what a lot of boomer women are doing, passionately embracing the second phase of life by living it on her own terms.
Amanda Sobanet