Hitting cinema screens today, The Substance features Demi Moore playing a 50-year-old celebrity suddenly fired from her job as the star of a TV fitness show. When offered a cell-replicating substance that promises a younger, better version of herself, she goes for it. The movie puts a spotlight on our youth-obsessed culture, on our fixation with achieving unrealistic beauty standards — earlier this year, the global aesthetics industry was estimated to be worth €54bn.
Here too the industry is booming, with record numbers looking for cosmetic treatments. “Women have always wanted to look as youthful and beautiful as they can,” says Prof Caitriona Ryan, consultant dermatologist at the Institute of Dermatologists and clinical professor at UCD. What has changed, she says, is the increased normalisation of cosmetic treatments.
“They’ve become more commonplace and affordable. They’re not taboo anymore, especially in younger generations, who talk about getting anti-wrinkle injections in the same way as they talk about getting their hair done.” Dr Rosemary Coleman, consultant dermatologist at Blackrock Clinic, points to a very visual world, where we’re constantly being photographed.
“And we’re living longer. We’re in the workplace for longer. I often have patients coming in their 50s, who’ve been perfectly happy with their appearance all their life, but now the youngsters are coming into the workplace all glammed up and botoxed, and the 50-year-olds are sayin.