There have been many changes as far as the expectations for women in recent generations. From women's desire for education and careers to their overall appearance, alot has morphed from generation to generation. Today's women are presented with pressures about obesity, plastic surgery, and even growing old.



For Many of our parents the largest decision about the signs of aging was whether or not to color their hair, or age gracefully. In hindsight, this question seems easy, even funny to have to consider. Women, once concentrated on growing their family and home life, are now confronted with a different reality. Women are {physically depicted on TV or in movies as no less than perfect. How often is it that you see over weight, average looking ladies staring in movies, TV shows and even advertisements? The answer is rarely. Women nowadays feel a necessity to constantly remain on a diet, alter their appearance with procedures and to remain young looking no matter how old.

Many ladies will tell you that they feel no pressure, but that it is their own choice to change their look. And that may, in fact, be true. However society places expectations, consciously or unconsciously, on our women. This fact is proven by the sheer number of young women who receive fake boobs. Many of these girls are barely old enough to drive a car however are being influenced to have such procedures. If that pressure is not placed by society than whom is it placed by? And as {{{women}females}}} grow older, and the signs of aging become more obvious, more and more ladies are reaching for miracle solutions to halt the process.

This fact is supported by the massive amounts of anti aging products available on the market. Cosmeceutical corporations have been cashing in on this indulgence by creating anti wrinkle and anti aging creams and serums for the masses. With expensive surgeries not being an option for the average American, non persciption formulas are the newest rage. Promises of removing wrinkles and preventing future ones have women and men, quite frankly, rushing to purchase these formulas. The fact that many of these creams actually do prevent many signs of aging only seems to be contributing to the epidemic. But is the consuption of these creams and the pressures for ladies to remain looking youthful too much for women to endure?

As a society we have witnessed the results that focusing on weight loss can have for women and men. The insecurities and lack of self confidence of many people because they do not fit the norm of what a woman should look like are abundant. Do we really desire to follow this same logic with the appearance of wrinkles as well? Unlike obesity, wrinkles and other signs of aging are unavoidable. One may be able to prevent gaining weight but no one will be able to avoid aging. Everyone will grow old and everyone will die. What type of emotional let down are we setting ourselves up for??

No one is claiming that anti aging products are bad, or should be banned by any means. If people feel better by using the products then these creams should be available. The observation of this author is simply that as Americans we have a tendency to use things in abundance, and as a result have ridiculous expectations. Scientific breakthroughs in the anti aging market are great, I just pray that our country does not exert undo pressure on women to remain youthful, when aging is simply unavoidable.