Everybody Has A Right… To Plastic Surgery?
Sunday, December 30, 2007Posted in: Hollywood celebrities, Ken Levine, Plastic surgery
I like Ken Levine, and I usually find him quite amusing, but I have noticed that he has a penchant for ragging on female Hollywood celebs much more so than the men. I guess it’s an age thing, but I honestly find him terribly sexist.
His post about Nicole Kidman’s movie choices, and her alleged plastic surgery annoyed me so much that I had to comment. Three times.
It also annoyed me that he had two photographs of Kidman, one from years ago, and a more recent one, obviously to point out the changes made to her face.
It seems to me that in Hollywood, you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. Everybody knows that the work dries up for women over forty in La La Land, much more so than for their male counterparts, so you can hardly blame them for trying to keep up with the younger, fresher starlets, in a town where a woman is only as good as her last botox injection.
I can probably excuse Ken for his sexism, after all he’s nearly a hundred years old from a different generation (57 is a different generation to mine dear), and he’s a bit of a shock-jock, but when I read this comment from some dumbass, I just about burst a blood vessel:
“Nicole, you have ruined your looks. Instead of aging gracefully, you have made your face a canvas of lies. Screw you for sending this message to women turning forty everywhere.”
You know what I say to that? Screw you bitch for perpetuating the belief that any attempts at self-improvement by women is a heinous crime.
In a world where youth is revered, and old age becomes an excuse to not employ somebody, there’s no such thing as growing old gracefully, (unless you’re lucky enough to be born with great genes). All there is is growing old, and either accepting that age comes to everybody, or fighting it tooth and nail.
She wasn’t the only annoying commenter however:
“I don’t want to see a movie starring a woman who has absolutely nothing in common with me.”
Sheesh. I of course had to respond to the genius who wrote that, even if it was three weeks later.
I’m not a huge fan of plastic surgery, but I think it’s wrong to constantly slag off the women in Hollywood who do have them, when so many Hollywood men are also going under the knife, with very little being said. And no, Michael Jackson doesn’t count.
Totally off-topic, but why is it that men can’t go shopping without having to pee a hundred times, and making you (read: me) wait for 15 minutes each time they have to relieve themselves? Sheesh.
Anonymous
December 30
8:14 pm
Don’t like the sound of all that peeing, Karen. Or the length of time per pee.
However I am with you on the slag off women actors thing. Ben Stiller is a leading man?
It is popular in Australia to say that Nicole Kidman can’t act, but I have seen To Die For.
Robin
December 30
9:45 pm
The hypocrisy around women aging is sick, and it’s not merely superficial.
A few years back a Christiane Northrup noted in her book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom that in cultures where older women are revered instead of scorned that menopause passes without all the physical and emotional symptoms we see in cultures where age is seen as tantamount to decay.
As for the notion of not wanting to watch films starring actresses that have nothing in common with me, I’m not married to a drug addict who spent the first few months of our marriage in rehab, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying some of Kidman’s films (totally agree with the To Die For rec!). Yeah, but she’s so super lucky, what with her divorce and several miscarriages and all.
Desiree Erotique
December 30
10:28 pm
I wonder what this brilliant man’s thoughts on Erectile Dysfunction meds for aging men are?
Eve Vaughn
December 30
11:04 pm
I think a person has a right to get plastic surgery if they want to although it can go too far, i.e. Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers and the ‘cat woman’ Jocelyn Wildenstein. When I get older and I had the means I would consider it.
I really can’t say why Kidman has been box office poison lately, but she’s not a bad actress. She may be suffering from what I call the Samuel L Jackson syndrome. He seems to be in every third movie released as does she and it’s probably too much. I bet if she chose a couple really good roles a year, her movies would probably do better. Look at Will Smith. He has a movie out every other year and they’re always box office smashes.
Ken Levine
December 30
11:11 pm
Hi Karen,
I do see your point. And I agree there is injustice in women not being as castable as men as they grow older. But in my piece and follow up comments I make a point of saying I have admired Nicole Kidman’s work in the past. And the plastic surgery she has received saddens me not makes me glad so I can take some cheap shots at someone.
I don’t consider myself sexist. Go back through my archives, see the praise I have for women actresses, writers, and others in general. Also see how often I lampoon men…including myself.
Sorry if I struck a nerve. Here’s wishing you and your readers a great new year.
Karen Scott
December 30
11:46 pm
Sorry if I struck a nerve. Here’s wishing you and your readers a great new year.
It’s ok, I just hate the double standards that women are forced to live with everyday.
And a Happy New Year to you too.
raine
December 31
12:32 am
…why is it that men can’t go shopping without having to pee a hundred times…
Male dogs do that with trees and fire hydrants.
I’m just sayin’…
Anonymous
January 2
12:24 pm
I thought when I got older I would have plastic surgery. I did get older and I have the money to do it, but I’m happy with my lived in body and face so I’m going on a tour of Mayan ruins instead. They are older and in worse shape and still admired.