My Year of Prolonged Suffering and Decrepitude

The girlies confront one of humanity's oldest anxieties — our fear of aging. From Cleopatra's donkey milk baths to ten-year-old girls putting Drunk Elephant eye creams on their Christmas lists, they explore how women have always been encouraged to prolong youth at their own expense. Digressions include *that* horrifying NYT article, mixed feelings about going grey, and some treasured wisdom from our older binchies. SOURCES: Anti-Aging Medicine: The History: Life Extension and History: The Continual Search for the Fountain of Youth Babies' skin is already perfect. Dior wants to sell them a skincare line Charting: A Brief History of Anti-Aging History Lesson: Centuries Of Anti-Aging Products Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body  No Truth to the Fountain of Youth The Craziest Things People Have Done to Try and Stay Young The Double Standard of Aging by Susan Sontag The "Invisibility" War on Older Women The 10-Year-Olds Using Drunk Elephant Beauty Products 'There's no ethical way to sell products that target signs of aging' They Always Say the Younger You Start, the Better Powerless in the Face of Beauty: Helena Rubinstein at the Jewish Museum Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl Why Americans Are Uniquely Afraid to Grow Old  Woman in Retrograde Women, Power, and Aging: An Introduction