Juventude injetável: biotecnologias líquidas e promessas de juventude eterna
p. 30-37
Texte intégral
1Os últimos quinze anos foram pautados por um aumento exponencial não apenas no consumo, mas também na inovação no campo da indústria do antienvelhecimento. O leque de ofertas ficou mais amplo e os tratamentos foram se tornando menos invasivos, mais baratos e de mais fácil acesso. Dessa forma, criou-se um mercado dirigido a reparar, revitalizar, restaurar, devolver e conservar a juventude como parte de práticas mais amplas de saúde, bem-estar, cuidado e valorização pessoal.
2O termo anti-ageing (em Portugal é comum encontrar-se a expressão em inglês, juntamente com a sua tradução para “antienvelhecimento”) está por todo lado. A “medicina antienvelhecimento” confunde-se com práticas de autocuidado e valorização pessoal ao incluir uma série de procedimentos físicos que tendem a mascarar os sinais de envelhecimento. Paradoxalmente, ao mesmo tempo que procuram estimular a ideia de uma aparência mais jovem ou até “sem idade”, reforçam o medo e o estigma do envelhecimento.
3As entrevistas efetuadas no âmbito do projeto realçam que os sinais visíveis do envelhecimento – como as rugas, a flacidez, a falta de tonicidade, ou os cabelos grisalhos – são mais desvalorizantes e problemáticos para as mulheres do que para os homens, e que os rituais femininos destinados ao rejuvenescimento começam significativamente cedo e comportam um investimento económico muito mais importante. O envelhecimento é, portanto, um fenômeno experienciado dentro de um sistema mais amplo de desigualdade de gênero, no qual a perda da juventude no corpo feminino é considerada como uma perda de valor social. Susan Sontag já no começo dos anos Setenta definiu como “duplo padrão do envelhecimento” esta desproporcionalidade, que combina discriminação de gênero e de idade, e que relega à invisibilidade social as mulheres mais maduras. Nas “economias estéticas” euramericanas o valor de uma mulher depende em boa parte de atributos (beleza, inocência, atração sexual, capacidade reprodutiva) que vão irremediavelmente desflorecendo com a idade. Correspondendo às pressões sociais impostas às mulheres, as intervenções cosméticas e as novas tecnologias oferecem a oportunidade de rejuvenescerem e reconquistarem o seu corpo, desafiando as imagens de idade, estigma, vergonha e invisibilidade que um corpo envelhecido acarreta. Se a juventude eterna não passa de um mito, os procedimentos anti-ageing prometem pelo menos “envelhecer graciosamente”, isto é, fazer que o processo natural da perda da juventude aconteça dentro de certos parâmetros de “estilo e graça”.
4Os procedimentos não cirúrgicos mais comuns são os cremes, a coloração de cabelos, as injeções de toxina botulínica (vulgarmente chamada de Botox), o laser para epilação, os peelings químicos, a microdermoabrasão e os preenchimentos com ácido hialurónico, sendo considerados procedimentos menos dispendiosos financeiramente, menos intrusivos e mais seguros fisicamente. Os produtos das perfumarias incorporam termos que pertencem aos campos científicos da Biologia, da Genética e da Biotecnologia, a dar a ilusão das garantias da cientificidade: Cell Renewal, Repairwear, Biotechno-performance, Revitalizing supreme, Replumping, Regenerating, Treats WrinkeLifting, Laser Focus, Recovering Filler, Lift repair Extreme, Lift-designer, Sculpting-lift, Botulin effect, Cellular Boost YouthFX, DNAge, LASER X3, Genefique, Hyaluronic Filler Extreme.
5Se por um lado estes produtos proporcionam o sonho de uma resposta tecnológica eficaz para contrastar as marcas da idade, por outro lado reforçam a ideologia de que a idade é uma escolha, como afirma uma famosa publicidade da marca L’Óreal: uma responsabilidade, uma atitude, uma opção, mais do que um facto biológico inelutável. As mulheres, no discurso médico popularizado, são encorajadas a “tomar controlo do seu corpo” e do seu processo de envelhecimento, no entanto, disciplinando-o conforme as normas socioculturais onde estão inscritas. Chamei estas exortações constantes de “economias e moralidades estéticas”. Reparei que as publicidades dos produtos anti-ageing utilizam o léxico bancário da bolsa de valores: investir, valorizar, perder valor, preservar o capital, rentabilizar, negociar, amortizar. Depois de tanto ouvir falar em investimentos, tentei calcular a minha despesa mensal em beleza (considerando também ginásio e cuidados alimentares) e realizei que gasto pelo menos um quarto do meu salário na manutenção do meu aspeto “juvenil”.
6Nas entrevistas que realizei com mulheres portuguesas, que se identificam como brancas, de classe média e médio alta e de ambiente urbano, confrontei-me com relutância e pudor na confissão das intervenções estéticas antienvelhecimento.
7As razões desta resistência são múltiplas: desde a tentativa de criar a ilusão de uma total “naturalidade” e “autenticidade” no aspeto, à vergonha pelo dinheiro gasto por “vaidade”; do embaraço em revelar a idade real até ao estigma que esta procura da beleza pode criar em ambientes mais críticos ou de feminismo militante. Mesmo as poucas mulheres que falaram com tranquilidade dos procedimentos estéticos efetuados apresentaram sempre razões “moralmente aceitáveis” para justificar esta escolha. Questões pessoais e familiares (separações, divórcios, doenças, necessidade psicológica de cuidar mais de si, baixa autoestima, ou ainda relações com parceiros mais novos); profissionais (importância da imagem no trabalho, relações públicas, exposição mediática); clínicas (botox para reduzir as enxaquecas; laser para os danos da exposição solar; rejuvenescimento vaginal para aumentar o prazer sexual; blefaroplastia para melhorar a visão; rinoplastia para respirar melhor). Algumas das entrevistadas reconheceram-se como “body entrepreneurs”, isto é, pessoas que investem estrategicamente em melhorar o próprio aspeto e reverter tanto quanto possível o processo natural de envelhecimento para aumentar o seu poder social, cultural e econômico, e as chances de sucesso profissional e nas relações amorosas. Afirmaram gastar quantias muito significativas de dinheiro para estender o mais possível os privilégios associados à juventude e preservar o próprio capital corporal. Claramente estamos a falar em valores acessíveis somente para uma parte muito restrita da população portuguesa, que pertence a uma elite económica para a qual gastar algo como mil euros mensais - entre produtos estéticos, tratamentos de medicina cosmética faciais e corporais, ginásio com personal trainers, alimentação biológica rica em proteínas nobres – é algo fazível sem excessivos esforços.
8Portanto não, apesar do slogan do creme de L’Óreal, a idade, hoje, não é uma escolha. Ou, pelo menos, não é uma escolha igual para todos, dado nem todos termos acesso aos mesmos recursos nem a mesma possibilidade de escolher: uma certa configuração da ordem social restringe a capacidade e a liberdade de escolha de certos indivíduos ou grupos, mesmo quando estamos a falar do acesso à preservação de uma aparência juvenil que desafia a idade biológica. O controle do envelhecimento de forma a proporcionar-lhe ‘graciosidade’, é, portanto, algo intimamente ligado não só ao género, mas também à classe social, ao estatuto económico e a todas as outras desigualdades sociais.
Naked Fieldnotes

2023, Chiara Pussetti
“Chiara, you were rather negligent. Thinking about retouching was something you should have contemplated years ago. Especially the face… the face is like a calling card. You can tell you haven’t used sunscreen… see these little spots? They're not freckles, no. They’re ageing spots. For women, I always say that caring for the facial skin is an obligation. If we then want to be accomplices of the disgrace… that’s something else!” (Paul, dermatologist).
“If you had asked me, I would never have told you not to intervene, even if you had made an appointment at twenty or thirty years old. It’s called prevention, you know what it is, right? You should have intervened to prevent the appearance of the first expression lines, before wrinkles create marks. And then, yes, our work becomes more difficult and we no longer achieve that result. Now we can try to treat, to attenuate: but the damage is already done” (Joana, dermatologist).
“On your face it would just be baby botox, don’t worry, or a biorevitalisation. It could even be something very soft like micro-needling. Nothing invasive. It would just be softening, you’re still Chiara, but an improved version of yourself” (Manuel, dermatologist).
***
Injectable youth: liquid biotechnologies and promises of eternal youth
9The last fifteen years have been marked by an exponential increase not only in consumption but also in innovation in the field of the anti-ageing industry.
10The range of offers has become wider and treatments have become less invasive, cheaper and more easily accessible. In this way, a market was created aimed at repairing, revitalising, restoring, restoring and preserving youth as part of broader practices of health, well-being, care and personal enhancement.
11The term anti-ageing (in Portugal it is common to find the expression in English, along with its translation to “anti-ageing”) is everywhere. “Anti-ageing medicine” is confused with self-care and personal enhancement practices by including a series of physical procedures that tend to mask the signs of ageing. Paradoxically, while seeking to stimulate the idea of a younger or even “ageless” appearance, they reinforce the fear and stigma of ageing.
12The interviews carried out as part of the project, highlight that the visible signs of ageing – such as wrinkles, flaccidity, lack of tone, or grey hair – are more devaluing and problematic for women than for men, and that female rituals aimed at rejuvenation start significantly earlier and involve a much greater economic investment. Ageing is therefore a phenomenon experienced within a broader system of gender inequality, in which the loss of youth in the female body is regarded as a loss of social value. Susan Sontag already in the early 1970s defined as “double standard of ageing" this disproportionality, which combines gender and age discrimination, and which relegates more mature women to social invisibility. In European-American “aesthetic economies,” a woman’s value depends largely on attributes (beauty, innocence, sexual attraction, reproductive capacity) that fade irrevocably with age. Responding to the social pressures imposed on women, cosmetic interventions and new technologies offer the opportunity to rejuvenate and regain their bodies, challenging the images of age, stigma, shame and invisibility that an ageing body entail. If eternal youth is nothing but a myth, anti-ageing procedures at least promise to “age gracefully”, i.e. to make the natural process of youth loss happen within certain parameters of “style and grace”.
13The most common non-surgical procedures are creams, hair colouring, botulinum toxin injections (commonly called Botox), laser epilation, chemical peels, microdermabrasion and hyaluronic acid fillers, being considered less financially expensive, less intrusive and physically safer procedures. Perfumery products incorporate terms that belong to the scientific fields of biology, genetics and biotechnology, giving the illusion of scientific guarantees: Cell Renewal, Repairwear, Biotechno-performance, Revitalizing supreme, Replumping, Regenerating, Treats Wrinke Lifting, Laser Focus, Recovering Filler, Lift repair Extreme, Lift-designer, Sculpting-lift, Botulin effect, Cellular Boost YouthFX, DNAge, LASER X3, Genefique, Hyaluronic Filler Extreme.
14While on the one hand these products provide the dream of an effective technological response to contrast the marks of age, on the other they reinforce the ideology that age is a choice, as stated in a famous L’Óreal advertisement: a responsibility, an attitude, an option, rather than an inescapable biological fact. Women, in the popularised medical discourse, are encouraged to “take control of their bodies” and of the ageing process, however, disciplining it according to the socio-cultural norms in which they are inscribed. I have called these constant exhortations “aesthetic economies and moralities”. I have noticed that the advertisements for anti-ageing products use the banking lexicon of the stock market: invest, value, lose value, preserve capital, make profitable, trade, amortise. After hearing so much talk about investments, I tried to calculate my monthly expenditure on beauty (also considering gym and dietary care) and I realised that I spend at least a quarter of my salary on maintaining my “youthful” appearance.
15In the interviews I conducted with Portuguese women, who identify themselves as white, middle and upper middle class and from an urban environment, I was confronted with reluctance and shyness in confessing anti-ageing aesthetic interventions.
16The reasons for this resistance are multiple: from the attempt to create the illusion of total “naturalness” and “authenticity” in appearance, to the shame for the money spent for “vanity”; from the embarrassment of revealing one’s real age to the stigma that this pursuit of beauty can create in more critical or militant feminist environments. Even the few women who spoke calmly about the aesthetic procedures carried out always gave “morally acceptable” reasons to justify this choice. Personal and family issues (separations, divorces, diseases, psychological need to take better care of oneself, low self-esteem, or even relationships with younger partners); professional (importance of image at work, public relations, media exposure); clinical (botox to reduce migraines; laser for sun exposure damage; vaginal rejuvenation to increase sexual pleasure; blepharoplasty to improve vision; rhinoplasty to breathe better). Some of the women interviewed recognised themselves as “body entrepreneurs”, i.e. people who invest strategically in improving their own appearance and reversing as much as possible the natural process of ageing to increase their social, cultural and economic power, and the chances of success in their professional and romantic relationships. They claim to spend very significant amounts of money to extend as far as possible the privileges associated with youth and preserve their own body capital. Clearly we are doing in values accessible only by a very restricted part of the Portuguese population, who belong to an economic elite for whom spending something like a thousand euros a month – between aesthetic products, cosmetic medicine facial and body treatments, gym with Personal Trainer, organic food rich in noble proteins – is something doable without excessive effort.
17So no, despite the slogan of the L’Óreal cream, age today is not a choice. Or, at least, it is not an equal choice for everyone, we do not all have access to the same resources or the same possibility to choose: a certain configuration of the social order restricts the ability and freedom of choice of certain individuals or groups, even when we are talking about access to the preservation of a youthful appearance that defies biological age. The control of ageing in order to provide it with “gracefulness”, is therefore something closely linked not only to gender, but also to social class, economic status and all the other social inequalities.
Naked Fieldnotes

2023, Chiara Pussetti
“Age can be seen mainly in the face. The body is easier, it’s enough to wear the right clothes to camouflage flabbiness. For example, after forty, I recommend wearing shirts with three-quarter or long sleeves. To hide the ‘goodbye muscle’, the one that wobbles when you wave goodbye. You know, the ‘bat wings’. The rest, we have no way of disguising. And the face is the first thing we see of a person, where our attention is focused. The wear and tear caused by the sun, the wrinkles, the spots, the irregularities, the loss of tone in the jaw line, the jowls, the drooping eyelids… these are the details that most reveal age (Maria 54 years old, ex-model). I’ve never liked old people. Imagine what it’s like to see in the mirror that I’m starting to look like an old woman myself. I don’t want to indulge in the ease of accepting old age, I want to continue to feel good about myself. To accept ageing is precisely to age. To grow old in a lazy way. Like those who always talk about illness. I can’t stand it. If there's one topic that's completely unsexy, it's talking about illness. I don't want to relate to people who are completely sloppy and relaxed about themselves. They're already beaten out of life. And I'm not like that. It’s a question of aesthetics, but also of coherence with what I am” (Luísa, 62 years old, chartered accountant).
Naked Fieldnotes

2023, Chiara Pussetti
“How could I participate in the same discourse that I critically analyse, that of the aesthetic dictatorships over women’s bodies, the myth of perfection at any cost? Cognitive dissonance. Chiara/anthropologist discusses the social construction of gender, the power relations implicit in aesthetic hierarchies, and the disciplinary practices that shape the female body. Chiara/woman I deserve and must value myself, to love myself, take care of myself, be a better version of myself. 7 days: first changes – muscle blockage corrugators and procedures. 15 days: I look more rested, relaxed, with a longer look open and smooth; more beautiful and luminous. 20 days: I stop using makeup, as I do it when I'm on vacation. I look like a photo with filters…”
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