Jane Fonda is the latest celeb to be honest about getting her slackening facial skin tightened up a touch. Apparently she had some work done back in 2000, and then made a pact with Sally Field that she wouldn’t again. “It’s really hard, especially if you’re a public person. But I want to give a face to aging,” is what she said at the time.
But then she went ahead and had her eyes and chin and neck tightened up back in February (this picture was taken in June). She explained to Larry King:
“If I was really brave, I would have not,” she said. “I vowed I wouldn’t–I did, and I don’t feel proud of it.”
I took that to mean that she’s both not proud of the fact that she swore off cosmetic surgery and caved (her lack of resolve) and the fact that she cared enough about looking like a “somewhat more glamorous grandma,” in her words to go under the knife again.
I have said before that perhaps if stars weren’t so open about getting work done, that it wouldn’t be considered de rigeur, and wouldn’t become the standard of how we’re all supposed to look. It pisses me off that a woman is thought to have “let herself go,” which previously connoted a passive lack of attention to appearance, if she doesn’t do something actively drastic, expensive and potentially dangerous.
But there’s another part of me that says, OK, so Jane’s admitting she couldn’t hold out, and that’s only human, even if she’s part of the problem of raising that bar. What’s more, she didn’t go all Joan Rivers–she says she deliberately left some pleats.
What do you guys think? Good for her for being honest? She should have tried harder to resist? Who cares? It’s her dang face. Or something else?
Photo by Oliver Pacteau, (Taken June 10, 2010) CC
September 9, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I think good on her for admitting it! I think when a star denies it, it becomes the standard. It’s a bit like – well, she hasn’t had work and she looks awesome, I should too. Let’s face it, everyone in Hollywood has had work and will continue to have work done. It’s the same way they’re all dieting all the time and exercising their little butts off. Nobody looks like they do without it.
September 9, 2010 at 6:42 pm
I used to think it was abhorrent that women would do foot-binding or have ribs removed in order to feel beautiful. Now I see women are having multiple surgeries to feel beautiful. I wonder, at what point in human history will women be cherished in every stage of life?
September 9, 2010 at 7:04 pm
i think we are waay too focused on salivating over what people “had done”. let’s face it (pun intended), we live in a world where surgery to look better/younger/tighter is more and more accessible. i think it’s ok to have a little tuck, if that means you feel good about what’s staring back in the mirror. why are we giving these women such a hard time when they do succumb? i’m not talking about the joyce wildensteins of this world (city), by the way, not about grotesqueness or pathetic attempts to look 20 all over again. but why would i have to feel bad and secretive about not loving my jowls and getting them strapped to the back of my neck? if i can afford it, why apologize? why hide the fact that we want to be considered attractive? it’s human. so yes, the short answer is: SO WHAT.
September 9, 2010 at 7:35 pm
She’s human…
I do think there’s a psychological connection As one can have the genetic gene for alcohol abuse.
I think in some individuals makeup there may be that same “addiction” gene and then the need is met by following through with the procedure…
September 9, 2010 at 8:34 pm
She’s not only admitting to it; but she can voice how she caved into her own insecurities..AND she left pleats? I’m kinda ‘fonda’ that. [sorry. couldn’t resist]. I’m not all uber-pro plastic surgery. Some of these Kafka-esque transformations really churn the pit in my stomach. Way too many young twentysomethings are treating plastic surgery like getting your ears pierced. It’s getting out of hand.
Yet, here’s the thing: Jane has had a unique human experience – living, loving, relating, growing old under the damningly merciless eyeballs of the public. That doesn’t give her an all-out hall-pass to go under the knife in the hopes of looking forever young-ISH; but it might at least mean that while the rest of us can “easily” squish on a baseball cap, swab on a lil chapstick and rumpled laundry from the dryer; Jane’s had a Greek-chorus bellowing her every wince since she could vote. I don’t know what that feels like. But there must have been an impact. Maybe this is it? I dunno. In part [not “all” but certainly “part”], the media has no doubt magnified her insecurities and so in her admitted weakness she caved. Worse than caving to her own self pressures/issues so publicly is – me thinks – her presenting herself a “natural” and answering to questions of her “beauty secrets” with an evasive shrug while thanking the wonders of wheatgrass and antioxidants.
So I guess I’m in the ‘good-for-her-for-being-honest’ AND kinda ‘who-cares’ category. And yet… and yet the subject matter DID make me click and read…and think…and comment. So I guess I care a lil bit 🙂
September 9, 2010 at 9:37 pm
If you can afford to do it, then why not? If she feels better when she looks in the mirror, then good for her. We should all be so lucky. Sure, better if we can accept what we see in the mirror, but I eat right, I exercise, I bathe, I wear makeup, I fix my hair, I dress appropriately … why not get a little nip and tuck, too, if it makes you feel beautiful (and you’re not obsessed with it like that Barbie woman). Should we all stop wearing makeup, put our hair in those Gibson girl hairdos, wear prairie dresses, and embrace the old hag in all of us? (No.)
September 10, 2010 at 9:53 am
It’s a plus that she admitted it since those of us without won’t have to wonder why we don’t look as “good” as she does at that age. I used to be very negative about plastic surgery; optimize the assets you have rather than spend a lot of money to change them. As I get older, however, I find myself less judgmental about the whole thing. Funny how that happened after I got the wrinkles. Still doubt I will want to allocate my resources to plastic surgery but I don’t see the point in criticizing other people’s exercise of their free will to do so, hopefully in a responsible manner. I do wish women and Hollywood/NewYork etc would end the young and smooth as the only acceptable if you want to work mentality and broaden the role models. Unlikely to happen in my lifetime I know.
September 13, 2010 at 6:25 pm
You know, I love how honest she is about it. I really wish she would have stuck with the plan though to give a face to aging. She demonstrates how deeply ambivalent so many of us are about plastic surgery. One part of me sees it sort of like an extension of make-up or spanx for people who can afford it and another part of me thinks it sends a sad message to little girls everywhere. I am a mother to one and another on the way. Part of me wants botox and a tummy tuck and the other part of me wants to love every wrinkle and stretch mark…
September 21, 2010 at 7:56 am
This double standard in our culture and in the media pisses me off. If you don’t get surgery, you’re pigeonholed for how bad and old you look, if you do get surgery, you are made fun of for becoming desperate and looking more like the cat woman.
Can’t there be a happy medium?
I think she looks amazing and I can only hope I will look like her at her age (even if I have to get surgery to look like that.)