Justice

Response to Courteney Cox's Before and After Photos Shows Women Just Can't Win

June 23rd 2017

A new interview with Courteney Cox reveals how people have lots of opinions about female celebrities' faces.

A woman who "ages well" is generally the recipient of praise and admiration by the public. Whereas a woman who "hasn't aged well" is often accused of having too much plastic surgery to stave off getting older.

We've seen this happen with Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger, and now it's seemingly the former "Friends" star's turn.

Cox has been shamed for getting fillers injected in her face. Now, she's explaining why she got them, and how she knows she's gone too far — not that it's anyone's business.

But her interview with New Beauty reveals how women — especially, women in Hollywood who are over the age of 40 — just can't win.

"Hollywood makes it hard; this business makes it harder," Cox said.

Courteney Cox Lisa Kudrow Jennifer AnistonAP Photo/Michael Caulfield - apimages.com

"I grew up thinking appearance was the most important thing. That as long as I looked OK, I would be OK, which got me into trouble," she went on to say. Cox is aware of the unsolicited and negative feedback she's gotten on her face. She explained she got so much done because, "I was trying so hard to keep up, and that actually made things worse."

"[W]hat would end up happening is that you go to a doctor who would say, 'You look great, but what would help is a little injection here or filler there.' So you walk out and you don’t look so bad and you think, no one noticed—it’s good. [...] The next thing you know, you’re layered and layered and layered. You have no idea because it’s gradual until you go, 'Oh sh*t, this doesn’t look right.' And it’s worse in pictures than in real life," she explained.

Since then, "I've had all my fillers dissolved," she said, adding, "I’m as natural as I can be. I feel better because I look like myself. I think that I now look more like the person that I was. I hope I do."

Courteney CoxPhoto by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP - apimages.com

Still, the reaction from people on Twitter appears they don't understand her perspective with them questioning why women even decide to undergo cosmetic surgery.

It's a vicious cycle. If women "age gracefully," (i.e. without use of fillers or surgery) they're attacked:

If they try to prevent the inevitable, via Botox, other fillers, or surgery. They're also attacked.

Women — those who work in Hollywood and those who don't — feel constant pressure to maintain their looks, though most don't even have a positive body image of themselves to begin with.

In 2011, Ann Kearney-Cooke, Ph.D., a psychologist, worked with Glamour on a survey "of more than 300 women of all sizes" regarding body image. It found that "on average, women have 13 negative body thoughts daily — nearly one for every waking hour."

And in 2016, Greatist sourced a 2014 report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons that had surprising information on the age range of women who get fillers: "about 100,000 were performed on people aged 20 to 29, a six percent increase from 2013."

Yet, people are still surprised when an actress in her 40s or 50s injects her face. It's a conflicting message, and no one wins.

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