Apparently the “Glam-ma” (ie glamorous grandma) and the “glam-ma makeover” are well established trends that I somehow missed. So much for keeping my finger on the pulse of popular culture. There are teams of plastic surgeons ready to reverse all the visible signs of aging—like the hip shelf and menopot that most women get. In fact, one surgeon in my neck of the woods has trademarked her bundle of procedures as the “GMommy Makeover.” Here are the options—a butt lift, thigh restructuring, arm restructuring, a tummy tuck, a face lift, a brow lift, a neck lift, a lip lift, and more. Some I’ve never heard of. According to one plastic surgeon, body surgeries on women over 70 have gone up 30% recently, twice as fast as for women between 50-69.
If you don’t want to take to the knife, makeup experts have lined up to give advice on how to glam up with products. British former model Lisa Elridge has several popular YouTube videos on how to do it. For the woman above, she used 14 different products and seven separate tools. I’m too lazy (or frightened?) to add up how much that must have cost.
All this is aimed at women with extra time and money on their hands. One woman interviewed on ABC News admitted that in the past she might have invested in music lessons for her children. Now that they are grown up, she can use her spare money on herself.
I’m not a grandma and might never be, so that alone might exempt me from the trend. In the meantime, I’m trying to boost my “wrinkle positivity.” In the words of gerontologist Lynn Yaeger, “Who says wrinkles are ugly and curves unattractive? The multi-billion dollar skin care and weight loss industries. [And lets add plastic surgeons to the list.] You can’t make money off satisfaction, but shame and fear create markets that advertisers and marketers exploit.” Maybe we can just say no.
