Paulina Porizkova criticizes society's youth obsession: 'It’s OK to ogle somebody who could be your daughter but not mature women'
Paulina Porizkova is calling out the hypocrisy within society’s obsession with looking young.
The model, 56, has long been outspoken about agism. This week she spoke to The Sunday Times about what it’s like getting older in a world that worships youth, explaining how, for her, it often seems she is “invisible to the population at large.” She really noticed the difference when she began receiving backlash from posting the kinds of photos she had taken for decades as a model.
“I look good,” Porizkova said of the pictures, which include nude shots, makeup-free selfies and bikini pics. “I didn’t realize it would be shocking for a 50-something woman to pose in the same bikinis from 30 years ago that still fit. It’s OK to ogle somebody who could be your daughter but not mature women who know themselves and are most likely way better at sex?”
Porizkova also explained that while she could go under the knife to appear younger, she wants to show that older women have value.
“Once you do that, you’re actually servicing exactly what you’re trying to oppose,” she explained. “We need to stand up and insist on not being invisible. I wish there were more women who left their marionette lines [which run down from the corners of the mouth] and forehead lines and crows’ feet. I wish there were more women who dared to age.”
Porizkova recently opened up on Instagram about the anti-aging debate, writing that while she gets “criticism from women” who assume she’s acting “superior” for not changing her face with Botox, fillers, plastic surgery, or heavy photo editing, that’s not her intention.
“I’m merely going for representation,” she explained in the caption alongside a photo of her face. “This is what it looks like to be an un-tweaked woman of 56, (ok, so on a good day and in great light). I, personally, want to see other women who haven’t tweaked, so I have a sense of what being my age looks like. In our new world of artificial perfection, sometimes it’s impossible to tell what is what, and I’m trying to clarify it for you the way I’d like it clarified for myself.”
She previously credited Sarah Jessica Parker with celebrating getting older, and applauded the Sex and the City actress for sporting silver hair.
“I’ve been seeing photos of Sarah Jessica Parker in the media, and every time I think ‘oh thank you thank you,’” Porizkova wrote on Instagram. “Someone who is my age who looks like me. I see my lines and droops and silver roots mirrored, and I love it.”
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