[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-post-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Black Han Sans|700||on|||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”46px” header_letter_spacing=”4px” custom_margin=”25px||5px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
WORDS: Jessica Barrett<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/11\/GettyImages-1789513273.jpg” alt=”relaxed woman” title_text=”The 2023 National Service Of Remembrance At The Cenotaph” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n When the images of the Princess of Wales attending the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in London on Sunday first circulated, the response wasn\u2019t one of reflection about the event she was marking. Instead, social media posts and news articles were flooded with comments about how she looked – specifically, negative remarks claiming she looks old.<\/p>\n \u2018What has happened to her? She looks too old in a very short time,\u2019 one user commented on a photograph of Kate on Instagram. \u2018She’s ageing terribly.\u2019 Another posted, \u2018She went from young attractive mum to mother of the bride overnight,\u2019 while another wrote, \u2018She’s ageing like milk.\u2019<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sad indication of the environment that all women, not just women in the public eye, are living in – with impossible beauty standards meaning you simply cannot win. There are some that suggest you mustn\u2019t show any signs of ageing, but also ones that criticise you for having any cosmetic treatments which are too obvious, or that go wrong. It\u2019s impossible to navigate, just ask Kylie Jenner, who this week has been similarly torn apart for looking older than her 27 years, with commenters on social media suggesting that her use of filler – which she has been open about – has aged her prematurely.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n The comments on a video of Kylie speaking at a Wall Street Journal event on 2nd November were just as shocking as those about Kate. \u2018Kylie looks so old, she looks older than Kendall, Kylie looks about 32 or 33,\u2019 read the top comment of one video, receiving over 4,000 likes. \u2018Kylie looks so much older than her age,\u2019 another read. \u2018Kylie Jenner looks about 47 years old in person,\u2019 said a user on X.<\/p>\n When it comes to Kate Middleton, especially, appearance has always been a huge chapter of her story. What she wears is tirelessly decoded and reported by the press, if her hair changes colour, by even the most subtle of shade switches, it\u2019s breaking news. When she got \u2018curtain bangs\u2019, a long fringe for those not in the know, Kate\u2019s hair made headlines around the world. And while she is so often held aloft for barely ever putting a sartorial foot wrong, when it comes to her looks it seems Kate isn\u2019t immune from the pressures that all women face to keep any signs of ageing quietly under wraps.<\/p>\n Some trolls even saw fit to compare how she\u2019s ageing to Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, 42, with one commenter writing, \u2018She is younger than Meghan, but she looks older\u2019. Tearing a woman apart for signs of ageing is one thing, but pitting them against another woman? That\u2019s just cruel, and unfounded.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n It could be argued that living in the public eye, especially in a high profile Royal role, means that any debate or criticism about your looks just comes with the territory. Just look at Princess Diana, who was routinely condemned for presenting herself in certain ways. In her book HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style, writer Elizabeth Holmes claims that the attention Diana received for how she dressed was a source of resentment within the Royal Family, and that it was used to paint her as \u2018shallow or frivolous\u2019 in the media.<\/p>\n Of all the media scrutiny given to Princess Diana, perhaps the most outrageous was tabloid commentary that she was too fat, her son Prince William said in a television interview in 2007. \u2018Someone said she had cellulite or something like that. As a woman in the public eye, she tried so hard and was so glamorous, always in the gym,\u2019 William told NBC’s Matt Lauer.<\/p>\n Twenty-five years on, though, and not much has changed when it comes to the standards of beauty we hold high profile females to (and, in turn, the rest of us). Ageing naturally in the public eye has become one of the most revolutionary things one can do, in the age of social media filters and aesthetic treatments, all designed to make women look as young as possible, for as long as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n A-list women are now speaking out about the ageing double standards they face (because while they are torn apart men are praised for ageing, called \u2018silver foxes\u2019 or told they are ageing like a \u2018fine wine\u2019. Madonna has been criticised for how she looks at almost every age. After an appearance at the Grammys earlier this year, her appearance drew so much negativity she made a statement. \u2018Once again I am caught in the glare of ageism and misogyny that permeates the world we live in. A world that refuses to celebrate women pass (sic) the age of 45 and feels the need to punish her if she continues to be strong-willed, hard-working and adventurous,\u2019 the 65-year-old wrote on Instagram. Model Paulina Porizkova has written a book of essays about womanhood at every age, called No Filter. She has said of ageing in the public eye, \u2018You don’t get to dismiss me because I have some wrinkles and sags and grey hair now, when I’m kind of fabulous, the most fabulous I’ve ever been. In fact, I’m going to just put it out there and go, you know what, this is me at my best. Deal with it!\u2019<\/p>\n Sarah Jessica Parker has been very open about how much criticism she\u2019s received for how ageing was depicted in the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That. She told Vogue, \u2018Everyone has something to say, ‘\u2018She has too many wrinkles, she doesn\u2019t have enough wrinkles.\u201d It almost feels as if people don\u2019t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are, as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better.\u2019<\/p>\n We should keep those words in our minds when we are faced with a photograph of any woman, in the public eye or not, and feel the need to cast any judgement about whether the years have been \u2018kind\u2019. If we\u2019re choosing to age naturally or we\u2019re not, it\u2019s entirely personal. And when it comes to criticising Kate Middleton, or comparing her with Meghan Markle, people would do well to remember that her face is quite simply: none of their business.\u00a0<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n IMAGE: Getty<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s a sad indication of the environment that all women, not just women in the public eye, are living in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions\/1675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What she wears is tirelessly decoded and reported by the press<\/h2>\n
look at Princess Diana, who was routinely condemned for presenting herself in certain ways<\/h2>\n
If we\u2019re choosing to age naturally or we\u2019re not, it\u2019s entirely personal.<\/h2>\n