DLEGs: Why did people in the 50s and 60s look so much older than people now?

I always use All in the Family casting as a sign of how much better people look now. They were 45 and 46 at the series start.

Most actresses were washed up by early 40's or cast in matronly roles. It's diet, exercise, beauty products and botox/fillers.

It is amazing how good some people look in their 50's. My grandparents looked like they were in their 50's and 60's when they were in their early 40's.

More people smoked and drank, and I don't think sunscreen was a big thing until fairly recently. My grandparents worked outside on a farm every day and they sure weren't putting on SPF. Very few people had a fitness regimen either although they tended to be skinnier due to eating less processed crap and moving more in general.

Hair, makeup, casting, leaded gasoline.

We've had many threads on this.

Mainly because people used to dress more formally. Adults dressed like...well, ADULTS as opposed to nowadays where everyone is very very casual and everyone wears jeans and sweats and athletic wear regardless of age.

Basically, adults now continue to dress like "kids" for the rest of their lives. It's all part of the infantilization of culture which is why everything gets dumber. Music, movies, books, and Broadway musicals are all geared towards the mentality of a 13 year old . Everything is based on comic books and YA novels. It's rather pathetic.

I think with the explosion of selfies people are much more aware of how they look - and especially of how they photograph - and what they can do to diminish the appearance of aging.

Here's George C. Scott at age 52, three years younger than me right now. He looks old enough to be my dad. I am not jowly, gray and world-weary looking.

I was stroking my face today, enjoying how soft but tight it feels. I’m 57 and thank sunscreen, retin-a and exfoliation.

I asked my grandmother this long ago. She was born in '28. She said to look older was the goal, meaning that maturity was considered desirable.

R1-R3 don't get it.

It’s the Peter Pan Gays!

I call them Peter Pans. The 50 year olds who dress like “30 year olds who dress like 20 year olds”. And since Gays set the fashion trends for society, the straights followed.

You can’t really get away with that at 60, and there’s an undeniably and futility to it at 60.

Perhaps at 60, I’ll live long enough to see a fashion reversal whereby more formal and mature fashions return? Who’d have thought that hipster facial hair circa 1880 would return to style? I’d still like to see ties from that era return to fashion.

My parents who graduated from high school in the 50's, my brothers and I used to look at their old yearbooks and laugh. The high school kids all looked like 30+ year olds.

R10, that's because they dressed more formally, and the girls had elaborate and stiff hair styles, which today we associate with older women. The same is true for people in their 20s before 1970. Their skin wasn't already aging badly; they just dressed older.

Also, while middle-aged people did look older when AITF was on the air, Archie and Edith Bunker are not great examples. They were supposed to look old, tired and outdated. Edith's clothes were dowdy even by the standard of the time. That was on purpose. Their house was shabby, too.

Nutrition, and the (overly) easy access to food. Our access to calories is easier than it has ever been in human history.

On the flip side, all the working out and abusive exercise routines have yielded a spike on permanent injuries, herniated disks, spine issues, worn-out cartilages, osteoarthritis, myolepathies, pulled muscles, scar tissues, etc. Not to mention the incidences of cancers caused by the rise in chemical, dietary and cosmetic consumption.

Proper disciplined exercising and stretching prevents physical ailments, but most people don’t adhere to them, and even if they do, at the beginning of the fitness craze, the best facilities and technology (proper routines, weights, machines floors, etc) were not enforced or available. You had people doing hug impact stuff on concrete or metal floors, for instance.

Physical therapists, sports medicine specialists, physiatrists, orthopedics, spine surgeons, cosmetic surgeons and neurologists - plus pharmaceuticals- are the real beneficiaries of this fake fountain of youth movement.

People look like a million dollars but feel like four cents.

r14 Better to look good than to feel good!

Most dlers don't look good or feel good.

I often wondered that too. For women I think it was mostly hairstyle and clothes but it seems to me (and maybe I just pay more attention to men) that men back then aged prematurely in terms of wrinkling, sagging etc.. I remember as a child Bob Newhart was on the same night as AITF. Back them I thought Newhart was at least 60. He was a “funny old guy”. How is he still alive. Lol.

I also notice men had more “manly” features from a younger age but that was probably due to doing more manual labor than men today do. I always notice hands and if you watch old movies the 20 somethings all have big, thick working man’s hands. I work for a tech company now and the young guys have feminine, soft, slender hands. Everyone has a “guy” who does their lawn and DIY and a “lady” who cleans. If they aren’t gym bros these guys do absolutely nothing. I doubt they surpass 2,000 steps in a day. They’re either thin and weak or pudgy. Back in the day men were more likely to be out doing labor from 14, military service, no sunscreen, yard work, odd jobs.

When we were kids mowing old ladies’ lawns and shovelling their snow was a right of passage into manhood. I was always a little flamer but my father bless him said it was okay because I wasn’t like the Kelly’s boy- Straight but a lazy couch potato. That’s how important manual work and using your strength for the service of others was to how masculinity was perceived. It galls me to see young men sit in their seat on a plane/train, AirPods in staring at an elderly person trying to haul their bags into the bin and not offer to help. I see more middle aged women offering to help than men.

All good points R17, though maybe the lawn guy/cleaning lady thing has more to do with a culture that expects people to work much longer hours than 9 to 5.

As for others, you all also make excellent points about hair and clothing styles and wanting to look older. People also had kids much younger back then (that's an actual fact--I recently read something about how the average age of a woman when she has her first child is way up from the 50s and 60s) and kids probably aged people too and then they were 45 and grandparents rather than being 45 and the parents of middle schoolers.

[quote]My parents who graduated from high school in the 50's, my brothers and I used to look at their old yearbooks and laugh. The high school kids all looked like 30+ year olds.

Your parents rode the short bus and went to school with people who were left back 5 years in a row.

R10, yet I continue to get ridiculed.

Ted Knight was 47 when the Mary Tyler Moore show started. This is what 47 looked like in 1970!

1. We live healthier lives today. Smoking and alcohol consumption is less than it was. We do not lead sedentary lives. My parents were more active than their parents. My generation is more active than my parents' generation.

2. The eradication of certain diseases. Take a look at photos of FDR in 1944/45. He looks ancient. He was only 63, when he died. The ravages of polio had a very heavy toll on him

3. Dress..styles have changed. Yes, there are many today in their 40s and 50s who are dressing like they are still 22. But even age appropriate clothes are not as before. It changed after 1967.

4. Life's easier for many of us than it was for previous generations. But look around you...compare your socio-economic standing and educational level to someone not as fortunate. Chances are that person looks older.

5. Stay out of the sun, regular exercise, and a healthy diet (plus good genes)...they'll keep you young looking

I think the preservatives, hormones and all the other shit that's in our food plays a role.

I think older men back then looked far more attractive because of their age-appropriate dress sense. Nowadays, the normcore/slacker attire (in combination with trashy tattoos) makes them look drippy and sexless.

R21. Right that night there was Ted Knight, Bob Newhart, Carroll O’Connor - all in their 40s and looking 20 years older. It’s no wonder 40 seemed so, so old to us. The big 4-0 was like a mini death.

Turning 40 used to be such a big deal, "over the hill" and so forth. 40 is not like that anymore. Many people of my generation are just starting to have kids at 40!

Age-appropriate dress sense seems to be really important to someone here. But if I look at a picture of Archie Bunker, and he looks 60, I don't think it's because of his shirt.

I think that 18 yr old 'kids' looked older because of the amount of responsibility they had. Often that generation was leaving HS for the job they were working up to graduation, helping to support their family/parents/starting their own families.

Responsibility is a son of a bitch when it comes to aging.

Carol Burnett at 27

Look at Ariana Grande. She's 26, a year younger than Carol Burnett in that pic. I have a niece like that, she's 25 but looks 13. And it's not her clothes.

Something's up.

R29 Looks so much like my grandma at that age. Ariana Grande is maybe an exception but I do find it hard to distinguish between 18 year olds and 30 year old sometimes. Same clothes, hairstyles and the males I work with have awful teenage vocal fry voice that makes me want to scream. I keep waiting for them to end every sentence in duuuuude because every other word is Fridaaaaay letteeeer meeeemo.

Two words:

I decided to watch some of the 1980s tv series Inspector Morse and was shocked to find the lead actor was in his 40s. I did read later on that he was a heavy drinker and smoker. Still, I mean Pete Townshend & Roger Daltrey were major drinkers and they looked pretty good in their 40s.

Janice looked rough

Sunscreen.

Use it, bitches!

Janis Joplin never really looked young. Bullied and humiliated and treated like shit by her peers while growing up in the dreadful Port Arthur took a toll on her looks. She put on weight and had terrible acne during that time period, which didn't help matters any. She was an alcoholic and a hard core drug addict. She died at age 27 but photos of her frequently showed her looking closer to 50. In her case the circumstances of her life and her excesses resulted in her looking much older than her actual age.

When I grew up in the 1960s, I learned that men did not fuss with their appearance. Well, right or wrong, that’s what I learned. I think I got this from my Dad’s generation that went through WWII. You couldn’t be too fussy in a foxhole or over weeks onboard an escort/destroyer. Of course, that’s changed so much that the men today are as fussy as any women. (Witness our hawt Disney prince, Tommy D.)

26 and 50

^^It carried over into the ‘70s

Thanks all, especially BPC at R22

Had no idea that FDR was only 63 when he died. And your point about class differences is well taken, especially with women. My mother is 63 and does not look like an old lady, nor do any of her friends.

I suspect contact lenses and more stylish eyeglasses played a role too--people back then wore big clunky eyeglasses, that ages you fast too

Judy, dead at 47

What about me!?!?

People in their 60s used to seem so OLD. Literally all the people I know in their 60s today are very active and act like they're still in their 30s.

70 is the new 30.

Guys in their 50s who claim to look like they are in their 30s are basing it in what 50 year olds USED to look like.

R38’s photo is not a good depiction of this phenomenon.

Redd Foxx actually looked too young for the part and they “olded him up” with gray hair and a gray beard.

A good example is the movie MARTY (1955) Marty's mother and Aunt were both in their fifties but they both looked and acted like OLD LADIES.

Redd Foxx already looked ancient.

He’s forty-eight in this one, two years before Sanford and Son:

When Ed Asner was telling Mary Tyler Moore "You've got spunk ... I HATE spunk," he was only 41 (born 1929, show debuted 1970).

41!!

Harder lives, life expectancy wasn't nearly as long. Also prudishness, people didn't bother trying to look sexy over a certain age, and just threw the towel in.

People didn’t even think about making their holes presentable in those days.

Also, every woman I know and some men all color their hair.

No gray heads among the older women I know, who if they didn’t color would be gray or white.

No shampoo sets. All free flowing hairstyles.

Yes, Judy Garland looked like death many years before she died. Judy at 40 looked like she was 65! And yes, we all know about the pills and booze - but fuck! That wasn't ALL of it.

The only recent actor that fits this model is Kelsey Grammer, who was 38 when he started doing Frazier. 38!!! He looked like total shit - still does!

More people smoked, even second-hand smoke ages your skin.

R49 Ed Asner looks like an obese 41.

If you go to rural/blue collar areas of the US, U.K or probably any Western country then people are still ageing much like the old days. The average 40 year old straight man isn’t that different to Ed Asner. I remember spending 3 months in Manhattan and then going to Little Rock and as soon as I got off the plane I was stuck by how old and fat everyone looked. 15 year old girls looked like 49 year old matrons. Every man over 30 looked 55.

R30 I know several women like that. They can be dressed up in business suits, but they still look much younger than their ages.

[quote]More people smoked and drank, and I don't think sunscreen was a big thing until fairly recently

This. The end.

The women who are 50 today like Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez look twenty years younger than someone like Judy Pills who died in her 40s.

And yet everyone says women age like shit and men are young and beautiful forever. Seriously though a lot of 20 something men look like they raided dad’s closet when they wear a suit. We have 2 interns this summer who were bragging the other day that they don’t have any need to shave. One has never shaved, the other runs a razor over his face every few weeks. A few clients have mistaken them for school age kids and assumed they were just coming to world with mom or dad for the day which was embarrassing for all involved.

It’s counterintuitive though because don’t they also say that we are betting bigger and taller because of better nutrition and there’s always scare articles about puberty starting earlier and earlier. Yet, there’s never been as many 30 year olds, male and female, who genuinely look like teens.

My great-grandmother was in a walker and permanent black or navy dress, hair in a bun, in her 70s. My grandmother, her daughter, wore a perm and kept active in pantsuits and trendy glasses at the same age. My mother is now in her 70s and basically dresses and keeps her hair (grey) the same as in her earlier decades, adjusting for fashion.

I recently watched a World War II documentary and there were scenes of mothers welcoming their sons home from the war. The women looked like senior citizens, and they only could've been in their 40s or 50s.

I love that movie R47!

And yes, you're right, I looked it up, Marty was supposed to have been 34 in the movie (same age as me!) and so his mother and aunt would probably be in their mid to late 50s.

[quote] Whatta you wanna do tonight?

[quote] I dunno Angie. Whatta you wanna do?

Norma Desmond was a long-forgotten has-been at 50!

How old is Julia Roberts, now? She’s only given up the leading lady roles in the last 5 years or so, right?

R65 She's 52.

We've certainly established in this thread that people's skin and faces were significantly more aged that people of the same age today. Maybe there will be even better skin treatments in the future that will cause people to wonder why we look older compared to them.

We’re Dataloungers, r67. We’ll never look old.

I got a bad sunburn in my early 40s that effectively tattooed a suntan on my face. If my hairline ever recedes, I’ll look like I’m wearing a mask. I found professional skin lightening treatments to be ineffectual.

I’ve worn the same style of sandal in the sun for decades, and that, too, has caused the permanent outline of suntan, in reverse, on the tops of my feet. I haven’t been out in the sun since I was 44, as a result. Now 60, so it’s permanent.

marry me r4.

I'm 80 look 25.

I don't think it was the smoking and drinking - I honestly think it is exercise, food, skin care and beauty products.

I'm drawing a blank on women (or men) who looked great in their later years. Paul Newman - but he drank a 6-12 pack of beer every day. Seriously.

I agree with the above poster - if you go to any non-urban areas of the US, you'll see people aging in the same manner. They look like shit and live in nowheresville - with no excitement, good jobs, or future. No wonder they're all pissed and vote Trump - imagine looking at TV or magazines at the people who live in the cities and you've got jack shit?

It’s true. Look at these fraternal twins who just turned seventeen and can’t wait to cast their first vote for Trump in 2020.

Wow look at all the empty seats behind the flag at r73.

r74, it wouldn’t make sense to allow people to sit behind the large flag when they wouldn’t be able to see anything and so they closed the whole section.

Bea Arthur, 50

OR, the flag is there so they have to worry about filling one thousand more seats with paid people or paid overtime union workers.

OR, the flag is there so they have to worry about filling one thousand more seats with paid people or paid overtime union workers.

So they DON’T have to worry

Beatles manager Brian Epstein died in 1967 at age 32. The linked pic was taken several years before his death.

Looking at old wedding pictures in my family, most of the men had major forehead wrinkles, crows feet and bags and all were married before their 30th birthday. Then they sort of froze and looked the same from 30-45 before going grey and looking elderly overnight.

As someone upthread wrote, some young people sought to appear older to add gravitas for business purposes.

When I was a baby-faced Engineer at a submarine shipyard, and shaving only every two days, I made a point of mimicking my recollection of the Apollo Engineers - wearing a white shirt and tie every day. Conservative haircut. Safety glasses were required and I usually wore the retro-nerdy model. I didn’t mind looking like a nerd as I felt it gave me authority. It was my job to direct guys with 30 years’ experience doing welding or non-destructive testing, and so forth. One trick was to discreetly ask them what to do, then tell them to do so. Within reason, of course.

I feel it is truly some evolutionary/hormonal thing as well-

I do feel that eventually people will live alot longer- that the planet is going through major vibrational shifts, ect--

And fuck, Sunscreen TRULY helps!

I really think it was the smoking. Most people smoked a pack a day. Also most people didn't use moisturizers and sunscreen. That spells horror for white skin.

The heavy drinkers and functional junkies of yesteryear didn't actively maintain their skin with exfoliates and toners. Also bottled water didn't exist yet so your average party animal or showbiz person, drinking it up, was probably severely dehydrated.

Posts like R4 are just "things were better back in my day" rants disguised as insight.

There is a wealth of sophisticated, adult literature to be had, as well as movies and television shows and even plays which are -- yes! -- in the legitimate theater. If you wanted it, you would have found it. If you sit around being lazy and complain all the time about movies based on the trailers you see when you watch something boring on network TV, well, that's on you.

People also dress in business or business casual on a regular basis. The younger ladies I know wear dresses far more regularly than the women in my generation ever did, except for a brief period in the 90s when jumper dresses were in. When out on the weekends I see quite a few younger men in khakis as well.

What you're complaining about are people doing casual things in casual clothing, but expensive and designer casual clothing has been in style since the 1970s. Actually, you could go back to the 1960s for that, with the mod minidresses which were casual in look but pricey.

The only times I see the "slovenly" look you older guys complain about is when I'm getting gas, grabbing groceries, or something where no one should care what anyone is wearing. And I haven't seen a pair of flip-flops in two summers, at least.

The ironic thing is they ate a lot healthier with far more nutritious organic food.

People didn't live as long at the time, and suffered from various ailments and diseases that were simply not treated or untreatable. That ages a face. Many actors who looked 65 when they were 40 didn't actually make it to 65. Looking older than your age (usually by 10 years or more) is a potential sign of health problems.

There's the sun exposure, smoking and drinking factors that others have brought up. Makeup makes a difference, too, but for some actors the makeup was so harsh it actually aged their skin, especially when there wasn't a lot of options for moisturizing or proper cleansing.

Joan Crawford had beautiful skin in part because she slathered on moisturizers and was obsessive about cleaning off her makeup in a way many weren't at the time. She also gave herself facial massages and used toners. I remember even as a kid in the 1980s people would bring these things up as though Crawford was a lunatic, but she was a lunatic who looked pretty good for her age, until she went bonkers with the lipstick and eyebrows.

None of you are taking into account how much photography has changed in the ensuing decades.Nor are you taking into account filters,etc. I live in florida,and when you see people in real life most of them indeed look their ages.Yes,more older people look younger now because they work at it,but the average person who is 50 looks it.

2 of my grandparents died from ailments that are easily cured today, high blood pressure, and syphilis. A third died of encephalitis lethargica, a disease that may have been secondary to the influenza pandemic of ~1917, and is not common today.

They all probably didn’t look so good at the end!

R65-Julia Roberts today looks like a FUCKIN MONKEY.

R11, I don't completely agree. At the university I went too, I saw a lot of pictures of the graduating classes from previous decades. All of them dressed much older than their age (i.e. maturely), but they also had much older looking faces.

R30, it's those faces Ariana always makes and that giant ponytail. She's Snookie from the block. My friend describes her as "a real life Bratz doll".

[quote]As someone upthread wrote, some young people sought to appear older to add gravitas for business purposes.

They got their wish, since faces and skin 50 years had such increased signs of aging compared to faces of today for people of comparable age.

I still think all the preservatives and shit that's in our food plays a role.

Here are pictures showing Ryan Philippe, 45, going on 29 (even by DL's delusive standards). Might the secret of his longevity be the antidepressants he's been on more or less since his teenage years?

William Talman, who played Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason, died in 1968 at the age of 53. That means when he started Perry Mason he was 42 years old.

[quote] The heavy drinkers and functional junkies of yesteryear didn't actively maintain their skin with exfoliates and toners.

Other than certain women and certain gay men, does anyone actually do this?

In terms of actors-- do you think it was a casting thing too--that Hollywood looked for actors who looked old for 45 to play those roles rather than looking for Ryan Phillipe type 45 year olds because the cultural norm in those days was that men and women over 40 should look older, whereas today the cultural norm is that they should look younger?

In Mike Leigh's 1977 TV play "Abigail's Party," all the main players look about a decade older. The woman in the opening scene, Alison Steadman, was 30/31 years old at the time. The woman in the glasses, Janine Duvitski, was just 25 but could easily have passed for 40.

Another factor - I'm sure there are many, including the heavy smoking - is that so many images from before 1960 are in black and white. B&W is elegant but it makes almost everyone look older.

R96, Bill Talman had terrible skin, and not just from smoking. I love his character, but the tight closeups on PM are brutal. On the other hand, Raymond Burr was 40 when the show started and he looked ... 40. Barbara Hale was 35, and she looked like a woman in her mid-30s.

R97, that's a good point. There was a cultural expectation that, once you reached 40 or so, you were supposed to look older and more serious, especially men. Women have always wanted to look young, but for women it's very hard to look past the clothing, hairstyles and, on many women, the heavy makeup that used to be routine. Even women's figures used to look different because of the lift-and-point bras and the girdles that produce a distinctively firm, smooth outline.

Sorry, R98, but I don’t see it. Alison Steadman looks like overly made-up 30ish woman in a matronly dress that would have been right at home on Golden Girls. Janine Duvitski doesn’t look anywhere near 40. She looks like a young woman in comically dowdy glasses and clothes. She’s also wearing very heavy, cake-like makeup.

[quote]On the other hand, Raymond Burr was 40 when the show started and he looked ... 40. Barbara Hale was 35, and she looked like a woman in her mid-30s.

You mean they looked typical for a 40 or 35 year-old of that time period. Now, of course, they would seem older than they actually were since people now appear less aged at those ages.

R101, no, actually. I meant that Burr looked 40 by today's standards as much as by those of 1957, and Barbara Hale in 1957 could certainly pass for a modern woman in her mid-30s with a current hairstyle and wardrobe.

[quote]I meant that Burr looked 40 by today's standards

Do you live somewhere where you’re used to a lot of cigarette smoking and sun damage? It’s not clear why you would think Burr at 40 looks like someone 40 today.

Though current food gets a lot of criticism for being processed. But It is in that process that food becomes more nutritious with added minerals and vitamins. Food use to be only local produce but now diets are more varied. A person could go to the supermarket and pick up produce from all over the world. I would think that would account more than clothing and hairstyles for people looking older back in the day than their current age counterparts

I was reminded this weekend that there are still people today who are old and who look aged. They are people whose lives are still hard. They do not have the amenities or the funds to keep themselves healthy and youthful looking, whether through a healthy diet, regular exercise, an easy life...amenities we who are middle class in the West take for granted.

This is a picture of the 90 year old grandmother of Rep. Tlaib. Compare her to a photo of Jane Fonda who is in her early 80s.

Who knows what Jane Fonda would look like if she hadn't had plastic surgery R105.

Patrick Stewart played John Thorton in North and South in 1975 at the age of 35.

Richard Armitage played the same character in 2004 at the age of 34 (pic in next post)

Armitage in North and South

I think most 90 year olds look that old R105 unless, as R106 notes, they've had plastic surgery.

Interesting R107/R108, but again, I wonder if that's more a casting call--they wanted someone who looks like a young 34

Even without plastic surgery, YMF, I would say that there are a quite a few 90 year olds who look younger than their age. Tlaib's grandmother has a very weather-beaten face. Culture too plays a part in the aging process.

Factory and outside farm work aged people. Indoor, air conditioned offices keeps many out of the sun and away from chemical fumes from factory labor.

Adam Brody turned 40 this year.

I was watching Mindhunter season 2 last night, which is set in the early 80s, and this guy said he was 44. Which is hold old I am. This dude looks 56.

Maybe we as a society got fatter and our skin in more stretched out now.

Adam Brody looks 30 tops. If this were the 50's or 60's, he'd still look young enough to play a teenager.

In those days ppl also did not stray from their heritage. Irish with Irish etc. The lack of diversity in genetics plays a role. Its different now.

Two things: people stopped chain smoking and the advent of bottled water. Seriously, people did not hydrate like they do today. Also sunscreen wasn't really a thing either. Most men did not think to wash their face outside of daily showering.

People today also spend much more time indoors.

What is weird is that today plastic surgery actually does the opposite and ages people. Larry King's wife is 59 but to me she looks much older (just saw an article they are splitting)

[quote]A third [grandparent] died of encephalitis lethargica, a disease that may have been secondary to the influenza pandemic of ~1917, and is not common today.

R89, how did one of your grandparent become a parent if they had encephalitis lethargica?

[quote]William Talman, who played Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason...

Wait, his character was named Ham Burger? LOL!

[quote]Most men did not think to wash their face outside of daily showering.

You think men used to *shower* *daily*? Yeah, neither of those things were common until like 2-3 decades ago. Even men who worked on a farm or in a coal mine often only had a full bath once every 2-7 days.

Several posters have mentioned the factors of nutrition, less (or no) smoking, less drinking, and sunscreen, but nobody's mentioned [bold]sunglasses[/bold]!

No sunscreen.

Sunscreen is EVERYTHING.

Why wouldn’t they? They had:

—Poorer healthcare

—Poorer technologies

—More physical labor-intensive jobs, in general

—More children to provide for

—Less access to credit

—Therefore, less disposable incomes

—Poorer nutrition, even if a lot of American food is poison now

—A cosmetic industry that was more likely to use lead and arsenic than collagen-replenishing science-based products

And on and on and on. These things age people.

Go to middle America where people don’t have access to or means to pay for cosmetic dentists and cosmetic dermatologists and beauty products and gym memberships. You’ll see Archies and Ediths everywhere. What you’re seeing where you live is glamour—outside illusions of “youthfulness” that come from long-term investments in self-care and preservation of appearances.

Also, if you live in a cosmopolitan area, the “youthful looking” 45-plus-year-old people you’re seeing everywhere might actually look like total freaks—like the Bravo housewives—and you’ve only been trained to see them as young looking. Something shifted for me one day when I was watching a Housewives episode—Beverly Hills. I think it was either Taylor Armstrong or Adrienne Maloof. I was watching, and suddenly I realized she looks like an accident victim who has had corrective surgery. Then the camera cut to the other women and I realized almost all of them look like accident victims. Their faces are disfigured. I had seen them before as “well preserved,” and then from that point on, almost all the women look to me like they’ve been cut and pasted into creatures whose faces 50 years ago would have garnered sympathy and revulsion. I do see some still as “well preserved”—most of the NYC cast, Kyle Richards et al. But Lisa Vanderpump, for example, looked glamorous to me when she first appeared and now she looks almost as freakish to me as Michael Jackson did.

Youth is in the eye of the beholder, at least when it comes to surgical interventions.

We’d look deranged if we had surgery at 15 to make our faces look five years old, or at 25 to look 15. 55 year-olds are not supposed to look 25, either, and you may be trained to see freaky looking people as young and gorgeous. Archie and Edith might have recoiled in horror at the sight of any of the Beverly Hills housewives.

People are using lots of artificial means to look young. As R125 said, many of them don't even look human.

There's also a change in the definition of what maturity and youth are.

Dawson's Creek and the OC were the beginnings of really seeing young men and women as adults on TV. Conversely, the parents on those shows and on shows like Gossip Girl look like they are in maybe their late 30's. Way younger than Archie and Edith.

And a lot of those "kids" on those teen shows were in their 20's or early 30s. I think we've forgotten what real teens look like due to movies and TV almost always using older people for the roles. It makes sense - they can work longer hours, their parents aren't around to say they can't do or say that line or that scene, and they bring with them more maturity and a little more experience.

I don't mind when people get work done to tighten up their necks, chins, or the bags under their eyes, but once they start putting in the fillers and getting the fish lips and chipmunk cheeks, I just assume they must be mentally ill. Who'd willingly get that done to themselves? Any idiot can see that it doesn't make you look younger or more refreshed. A traditional facelift can look good on a woman, but terrifying on a man. They can still freshen themselves up with some neck and under eye work, though, and look natural.

“No wrinkles” does not mean “youthful.” Somehow the public has been trained to see this and think “OH MY GOD SHE LOOKS AGELESS!!”

She’d be horrified to look in the mirror and see an older woman looking back...how are women today so eternally youthful?

I don't know anyone that would say she looks good after her plastic surgery R129.

Rumor has it Donatella Versace may be at least 40 years old—but you’d never know it with such smooth, sluglike skin!

How DO they do it?

[quote] Basically, adults now continue to dress like "kids" for the rest of their lives. It's all part of the infantilization of culture which is why everything gets dumber. Music, movies, books, and Broadway musicals are all geared towards the mentality of a 13 year old... It's rather pathetic.

^^ The 70-something, British contingent of DL. Should we all be dressed in the oppressive layers of 19th century clothes on a sweltering summer day?

I do wonder why everyone stays youthful and gorgeous today. It’s really weird. Must be vitamins.

The person can post images of bad cosmetic surgery until the cows come home. That doesn't change the fact that people without plastic surgery look younger at their age than people used to look at that age.

The worst part is that the plastic surgeries that we used to label as Frankenstein disasters are now relatively normal and commonplace.

We no long mercilessly mock someone like Lisa Rinna's lips or Brandi's face.

I read an article that suggested that since it costs a lot of money and is so obvious, it will inevitably become a status symbol NOT to look natural. The "augmented" (and non-human) look will become the aspirational norm.

Tell me about it

She looks pretty good for 94 years old R137.

Even Donald Trump looks younger these days.

Admit it, I look 17.

I dog years, yes ^