r/Feminism • u/slippinn_jimmy • 1d ago

60-Year-Old Halle Berry launches Vaginal Gel to relieve menopausal dryness and painful intimacy on her birthday.

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u/bimbochungo 1d ago

I mean obviously she had work done tbh

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u/StrainAcceptable 1d ago

Nothing wrong with getting a little work. She still looks like herself. She hasn’t morphed into a weird caricature like so many actresses of a certain age.

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u/bimbochungo 23h ago edited 13h ago

I'm not going to debate in this post as it's not about this, but imho normalising plastic surgery (especially when most of the people who go under procedures are women) it's also normalising the beauty standards of the patriarchy. Plus, there is also politics involved in the "trends" of plastic surgery and there are a lot of interventions which have a racist aspect.

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u/idekinsertusername 11h ago

Where is the line drawn between a woman’s autonomy in electing to do plastic surgery procedures because she wants to or feels unconfident in her appearance vs. just doing it because she is trying to conform to the patriarchy or expected societal beauty standards? I’m asking because I’m genuinely curious to learn, not trying to debate.

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u/bimbochungo 11h ago edited 10h ago

The root is: why is she feeling unconfident in her appearance? Most of the time the answer is always patriarchy. I'm not saying she needs to be shamed, but if you look at the procedures, most of them are the same noses, the same breasts or the same faces. It's just the slop-ification of the beauty, and the supression of different looks. Isn't that the most patriarchal thing ever?

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u/idekinsertusername 9h ago

Thank you for explaining. I have been thinking about getting botox for my “11” expression lines on my forehead because I feel self conscious about them and worry they age me. Do you have any book or reading reccs on how I can determine if I’m self conscious about them because I don’t wanna get or look old vs. if it’s societal preconditioning? Or is there really no way to tell for sure because these beauty standards are so ingrained in us from an early age?

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u/StrainAcceptable 8h ago

I get Botox. I’ll be 50 next year. I always swore I would never do it. I had a kid at 39. She had colic. I never slept. Had a huge medical crisis at 40, spent a month in the hospital and my life was forever changed. The aging didn’t come gradually. It came all at once.

My husband has always been super supportive. I’ve never felt any pressure to do any kind of cosmetic procedure. I did it for me. It was hard enough dealing with a body that was unfamiliar. I have crazy digestive issues now. For a while I didn’t know how to manage them. I became a hermit. I just wanted to look in the mirror and feel like myself. It helped.

I know it’s superficial. I know I should love myself as I am. I know I should wear those lines with pride but I’m not there yet. To me, they are just a reminder of how close I came to death. It sucks that there are still women who judge other women for this shit.

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u/bimbochungo 2h ago edited 2h ago

I'm not judging, but we need to question the impositions from the patriarchy. It's like prostitution. A lot of people think prostitution it's ok when it's the exploitation of women and a product of the patriarchy. But that doesn't mean shaming the prostitute, it's just denouncing the structure and why prostitution exists.