Madonna Shouldn't Have to Defend the Appearance of Her Face, Cosmetic Surgery or Not

glamour.com:

to other women and highlighting her failure to visibly age in line with societal expectations. , Madonna later a selfie with the caption, “Look how cute I am now that swelling from surgery has gone down.

Lol.” This content can also be viewed on the site it from.It's a familiar story: Women are encouraged to delay—or better yet, *reverse—*visible signs of aging at every opportunity.

Yet when we do as we're told through beauty products, surgical intervention, or extreme exercise and nutrition regimes, we're berated for not “aging gracefully.”Glamour spoke to Anita Bhagwandas, a beauty director and author of , and Jessica DeFino, a beauty critic and founder of newsletter, to unpack the concept of aging gracefully and explore why it's so often leveled at Madonna.

What does aging gracefully actually mean? According to Anitas Bhagwandas, it refers to “aging with some cosmetic intervention to still be agreeable to the male gaze, but not too much that you seem desperate, or that it’s noticeable.”Essentially, it's about funneling a lot of time and resources into anti-aging efforts while maintaining a façade of effortlessness.