Is the Pursuit of youth
being taken too far?
being taken too far?
The recent body-horror film, The Substance, holds a mirror up
to our youth-obsessed society where salmon sperm facials,
backyard procedures and social media pressure leave
women chasing an impossible and increasingly
dangerous ideal.
Image above Photography Credit: Demi Moore in The Substance
Words by Ava Lenihan
Torn Flesh, blood baths and mutating eyeballs may not sound like an accurate depiction of our current cosmetic culture, but Coralie Fargeat’s recent film, The Substance, makes a plain-stated comment on the lengths a woman will go to retain her youth and has come at a great time for our crippling vanity-obsessed society. Whether it’s the Vampire Facial that reinjects your own blood back into your face, or permanently lifting your smile, women seem to be going to extreme lengths to prevent the ageing process.
Left to Right- L: Demi Moore in The Substance. R: Injection from The Substance. Photographs: Working Title Films
The Substance’s message is ramped up with gore and horror, but nevertheless, finds parallels between its fictional narrative and our current reality, leaving audiences with a powerful cautionary message about beauty standards. Demi Moore’s character, Elizabeth, is shunned from work and is largely stripped of any value as she enters her late 50’s. When a younger woman (Margaret Qualley) is violently birthed out of Elizabeth’s spinal column, she leaves her old body to decay on the floor whilst she is gifted with the ability to prance around in her new youthful body valued for its sex and suppleness.
Back in the real world, the pressure to seek perfection is inescapable when you are surrounded by anti-wrinkle cream-stacked shelves and billboards plastered with smooth-limbed models. A 2024 survey conducted by the UK Parliament showed that 36% of young people agreed they would do ‘whatever it took’ to look good which now includes sourcing the sperm from the salmon in our seas. The newly popularised procedure uses salmon DNA to stimulate the production of collagen and new blood vessels, giving the skin a more hydrated appearance. At the beginning of the year Kim Kardashian took to her screen to share her recent activity with salmon sperm.
Victoria Goulbourne (left and middle) and Monica Millington (right) documentations of Salmon Sperm Injectables on Tik Tok Photographs: Tik Tok
What was once something that only existed within the elite celebrity realm, is now something us common people can access albeit using barely qualified aestheticians. Under UK law, anyone can perform non-surgical procedures without a licence. Elaine Young, an avid supporter of these injections is now preparing for her fourth round in January and first heard about salmon sperm injectables from “some random ladies” on Tik Tok. Elaine admits “she will never embrace getting old” goes further to say, “I would do anything to make myself look good, 100%.”
“If it means a juicy bum and lovely titties- fuck it, I would definitely take it”
According to Harley Street Surgeon, Dr Silva, the average age of female cosmetic surgery clients has decreased over the last 8 years. Jessie, a 22-year-old hairdresser said she is “influenced easily by friends” and what she sees on social media. She claims she is not addicted to cosmetic procedures, despite her having her fist dose of filler at 18, a boob job at 19 and continued sessions of Botox at 22, with no plans to stop anytime soon.
When these women were asked whether they would take a similar substance to Coralie Fargeat’s, one that would gift them with eternal beauty but had no research on the long-term health effects, a keen Bobby Jo, who started her cosmetic journey at 18, said “Fuck it, I would definitely take it”. She was excited about the prospects of a “juicy bum and lovely titties” and the need to never go on a diet again.
On the other side of the coin, feminist writer and journalist, Megan Nolan, says it is not anti-women to detest cosmetic surgery and argues a lot of us have passively accepted “the mainstreaming of cosmetic intervention without querying what it will do to us long term.” She expresses utmost gratitude that she grew up in a time far away from our current youth obsessed age, where you could be blissfully ignorant to the standards of beauty. Now she finds it difficult to believe that women go to such great lengths for empowerment and reclaiming bodily autonomy. Nolan encourages us to question the deep-rooted causes that have led young girls to believe that a capitalist product can pause the natural and immutable process of ageing.
It leaves you pondering why such rigid standards of beauty exist in the first place? Is this conversation just another stick to beat women with?
We may not be living in the fictional horror of ‘The Substance’, where mutating eyeballs meet body’s birthed from spinal columns, but it’s message cuts uncomfortably close to home. Due to the rise of biotechnology, experts suggest that the future could include gene therapies for hair thickness, skin tone or even aging speed. More familiarly, the rise of AI means women will be chasing algorithmically defined perfection, an ideal defined by a robot, it doesn’t get much more dystopian than that.