‘The Substance’ Proves Ageism Is Still Rife, But What If There’s Freedom In Rejecting Our Obsession With Youth?

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Watching The Substance – the body horror movie starring Demi Moore that debuts on streaming platform MUBI today, which confronts some of our biggest fears about beauty standards and ageism – led Kathleen Baird-Murray to ask whether it’s time we moved on?

A 63-year-old girlfriend of mine – a sophisticated, cool fashion type, if we can be reductive about these things for just a minute – has a theory about getting old. Forget your creams, your surgery, your yogi bendiness. All we should be aiming for, in her opinion, is to not repulse people.  

It’s a thought that pops into my head while watching The Substance, a Dorian Gray for our times by French writer and director Coralie Fargeat. There are many scenes to be repulsed by in this film about ageism and misogyny – it is, after all, a horror, complete with DIY spinal surgery which acts as a catalyst for the protagonist’s rapid descent into loneliness, decrepitude and self-annihilation.  

But the most memorable repulsion for me was the nightmarish vision of Dennis Quaid’s character Harvey grotesquely stuffing his face with prawns, opposite the ‘ageing’ but otherwise demure Elisabeth, played by Demi Moore. As he chomps on the prawns, a droplet of sauce landing on his chin, the camera zooms in to his toothy mouth as he says, “People always ask for something new. At 50, it stops.” As if seeing her own future disappear, Moore watches a fly drown in a glass of wine.  

This could be just another Hollywood dream gone wrong – more jobs for the ageing boys, while the ageing women see their contracts terminated – and yet ageism is alive and well in all walks of life and all parts of the world. The Times newspaper recently published an article in which recruiters said they believed 57 (my next birthday) is “too old” to be considered for a new job. And earlier this year – in a BBC Maestro tutorial on business – entrepreneur Trinny Woodall  claimed to have been asked while fundraising for her successful beauty brand whether she would still have energy to run a business, given she was over 50. 

Meanwhile, our media is filled with images of famous women of a ‘certain age’; their approach to ageing constantly dissected, as if society has a right to decide how much ‘work’ is too much or too little. From Christy Turlington and Madonna to Helen Mirren, no one is allowed to age the way they want without some form of public judgment – a running commentary of ‘good’ or ‘bad’.  

Of course, in The Substance, Elisabeth’s dream of ‘a better version of herself’ (a line I’ve seen variations of on many a jar of anti-ageing cream over the years), is an even more extreme version than the lasers, injectables and surgery many of us routinely submit to for maintenance. But maybe this is the social contract we’ve come to – where we can still ‘pass’ for young-enough (and therefore remain relevant) – as long as we comply by keeping up the good ‘work’. 

There’s nothing new here. When the French actress Sara Bernhardt returned from a trip abroad in 1912 looking considerably fresher-faced, it prompted the Parisian suffragette Madame Suzanne Noel to embark on a career as a plastic surgeon, one of very few women qualifying at the time. A staunch feminist, she believed a woman had just as much right to change an ageing face as she did to vote, because how else could we choose our own destiny? Is what we are doing now to our faces – in the name of staying relevant, current, employable – any better or worse?  

And yet, in some quarters, there is a subtle shift away from the fetishisation of youth above all else. “When I see people in their fifties, they tend to ask for treatments that will not alter their face but will just make them look fresher,” says Dr Marko Lens, founder of skincare brand Zelens and a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in London. His clients tend to be more concerned about having a glowing, healthy complexion and less about literally looking younger. “They like the idea of a holistic approach to ageing.”  

This is also the experience of longevity and diagnostic specialist Dr Sabine Donnai, founder of Viavi, whose ultra-high-net-worth clients prioritise increasing their physical and mental energy and resilience over turning back the clock. “Ageism is partially a mindset,” she says. “If we start viewing ourselves as older, and therefore less valued and useful, this attitude tends to play through in how others perceive and treat us.”  

She is right, of course. When faced with the casual ageism, the discrimination, the coded use of words such as ‘experience’ (as in having too much, code for: ‘you’re old’), is it our duty to educate, to lead by example, or is life just too short to bother with such narrow-mindedness? Personally, I am inspired by one older friend – a former fashion PR who has just retired at 60 and moved to another country to start a new life, very happily by herself. She has found freedom in deciding not to be overly concerned by the pursuit of youth.  

“It’s not about what you look like on the outside,” she says. “It’s about how your brain works, how you see things; having a fresh, youthful perspective on life. You can go to a surgeon and get your face fixed up, but if your views are older views, you just look like an old person with a fixed-up face. Ageism exists, but it’s so short-sighted.” And there is nothing more ageing than a short-sighted attitude to life.  

Service95 has partnered with MUBI to offer readers 60 days of great cinema, for free. Start with The Substance – available to stream on MUBI now

Kathleen Baird-Murray is a writer and beauty director based in London and Shropshire. She is a contributing beauty editor at British Vogue, hosts the Keeping Face podcast, and recently launched her fragrance, Catch Me If I Fall, by La Pyae Apothecary