Justine Bateman has gotten candid while discussing the reality of ageing in the public eye, and her experience with negative opinion on her surgery-free complexion.
The actress turned director – and sister of actor Jason Bateman – was chatting to 60 Minutes when she confessed she didn’t know anyone was that interested in her looks until she happened to be googling herself for her book and encountered a popular autofill suggestion.
“I needed to google something, and I googled my name Justine Bateman, and an autocomplete came up which said ‘looks old’,” she explained, before adding that it’d taken her aback.
After browsing the pictures that the search provided – those Justine believed the internet considered “evidence” – she couldn’t see what it was that they were talking about. Her face was a natural face, not an ‘old’ one.
And Justine had one very clear message for anyone who had any different to say – to her, or to anyone else embracing the ageing process – when she said, “I just don’t give a sh*t. I think I look rad, I think my face represents who I am, and I like it.”
That isn’t to say Justine has never considered what cosmetic intervention may do for her, with the 57-year-old admitting that she has wondered how she might look – though she’s never followed up on it, too happy with how she’s evolving to risk losing any part of herself.
“You can certainly look in the mirror and you can go ‘oh, well, if I just had like a lower face lift, I would get rid of this skin that catches the light, and then I could have that operation where you go in to the eyelid – or you know – take some of the skin out, and this that’s hanging over now over the eyelid, you can get that removed’. Sure, you can do all of that,” she explained.
“But even then I would just be like ‘okay, so now I look like this’, and then I would erase … I feel like I would erase not only all my authority that I have now, but also I like feeling that I’m a different person now, than I was when I was 20.
“I like looking in the mirror and seeing that evidence.”
Many took the opportunity to thank Justine for her words, and her stance during the interview, with some even opening up about their own experiences while commenting on her social media.
“It was a powerful share. Ageing in a culture of anti-aging isn’t particularly easy, but it’s heartening to hear from other women who recognise that our worth is not determined by our appearance,” said one. “We’re objectified in our teens and twenties, only to be discarded by society by the time we reach our forties for the ‘crime’ of ageing. Aka staying alive. It’s patriarchal BS and we deserve better. Thank you for your voice.”
“Thank you Justine. I just wish your interview segments were longer,” wrote another. “I appreciate you so much for speaking out about this issue and know you will be helping so many women navigate all of the distractions. So much oppressive ageism [is] wrapped up in teaching women to hate and fix their ageing bodies.”
“Those lines, wrinkles and grey hairs are details to a rich and storied existence,” someone else declared, “wear them like badges of honour.”
And as Justine herself put it, “forget about your face! That is what I’m saying. Get rid of the fear that your face being wrinkled is going to ruin a bunch of opportunities for you.”
Images: Instagram, Getty, Vimeo, 60 Minutes
This article first appeared on Over60.