Probing Our Fear of Aging

Some say age is merely a number. Of course, it’s that number that millions of Americans are trying desperately to manipulate.

Whether it’s injecting botulism, slathering on cream made from babies’ foreskin or eating a severely restricted diet, the youth obsession in this country is becoming more pervasive.

Tonight, ABC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman explores the ways in which many Americans have declared war on the aging process as we’ve come to know it in “Looking Younger, Living Longer: What Every Woman Wants to Know.”

According to her report, more than 8.5 million Americans underwent a cosmetic procedure in the last year to the tune of more than $8 billion. In 2001, cosmetic procedures reportedly rose by 48%. As one expert puts it, rather than trying to lose those last 10 pounds, many people are focusing on losing those last 10 years.

And the message is getting to the masses earlier, with ads for creams claiming to fade lines and smooth out cellulite all over magazines that appeal to twentysomethings.

However, one small wrinkle: The very women who help deliver the public these celebrated images of youth find themselves left behind as they age. In the program, Cybill Shepherd and Lauren Hutton discuss Hollywood’s Botox-immobilized raised eyebrow on aging. Actress and former model Shepherd, now 52, reminisces that she was told, early in her career, that 25 is over the hill in Hollywood.

But this issue is traveling beyond the cameras and soft lighting to the workplace, Snyderman says. To buy a little more time and, for some, to get a better job, some women are willing to alter their appearance. A laser procedure at lunch, an eyelift on vacation.

And some companies are going beyond the it’s-better-to-look-good-than-to-feel-good approach to examine ways to help us live longer too.

However, like some of the procedures it highlights, the program doesn’t go much beyond the surface. Snyderman doesn’t spend a lot of time on what’s behind the American obsession with looking and remaining young. And the dearth of minorities in the program implicitly suggests that this is an obsession of white women, not every woman, as the title professes.

Beyond the actual price tag, there is little discussion about at what cost people are attempting to extend their lives.

The program does touch on some of the social ramifications of living longer. More questions than answers arise: If Americans live longer, will they work longer, and if so, how does that affect the younger generations when they prepare to enter the work force?

With all the effort and cost people are putting into looking as young as they feel, working into their 90s might well become a necessary evil.

“Looking Younger, Living Longer: What Every Woman Wants to Know” airs at 9 tonight on ABC.