Only the poor grow old

«Have you come to fetch me? - I've been walking beside you for a long time.» If we were to imagine death, it would be challenging to think of something other than the dark figure dressed in Bergman's The Seventh Seal. However, today, despite wars, the specter of Covid, the Climate Clock reminding us that the planet has only 7 years of life left, and the threat of an AI apocalypse, death is not a trending topic. Life, or at least its extension, is undoubtedly a trending topic. The Academy for Health and Lifespan Research, The SENS Research Foundation, The Coalition for Radical Life Extension, Unity Biotechnology, Sierra Sciences, Life Biosciences, Altos Labs, are just a few of the institutes that have made longevity their battle. Sensational headlines in newspapers tell the story of a magical pill, a combination of drugs capable of reversing the aging process through the AMPK enzyme from Harvard Medical School. Privately, billionaires work to delay the inevitable, from Jeff Bezos to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to the controversial billionaire Peter Thiel. Humanity seems to have not yet come to terms with the inevitability of its own death. However, despite the dream of eternal life or eternal youth that has established itself in the collective imagination as a fanciful safe haven, today, not dying, just like not aging, seems to be an increasingly realistic mirage, but only for the top 1% of the world.

There is an imbalance not only in spending possibilities but also in the breadth of dreams. If, on TikTok, 45-year-old Bryan Johnson, like Benjamin Button, recounts his annual two-billion-dollar routine, with which he has reduced the biological age of his organs by 5.1 years (a world record) and lowered the aging rate by 24%, between a vegan diet and more than 100 daily supplements, the less wealthy settle for a humble vial of Botox. According to the Aesthetic Plastic Surgery National Databank, the number of Botox procedures performed in America increased by 54% between 2019 and 2020, while fillers were up by 75%. Professor Francesco Stagno d'Alcontres, President of the Italian Society of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery (SICPRE), provides data from Italy in L'Espresso: «There are nearly 700,000 medical procedures in Italy. The total number of non-surgical procedures is 385,000, and surgical ones are 238,000.» A survey conducted this year of over 3,000 American women aged 18 and older, reported by AMSA, found that 70% of the sample regularly used anti-aging products, including baby Botox. Often belonging to Generation Z, patients enter the doctor's office asking for what Americans call the "rich girl face," well-promoted by the Kardashian family. On the internet, memes and the hashtag "you are not ugly, you are just poor" ironically emphasize how contemporary beauty icons have all undergone various aesthetic procedures - Bella Hadid, Kylie Jenner, Simi and Haze, demonstrating that it is money rather than genetics that is the prerequisite for creating a face that is universally considered beautiful.

Beauty and wealth have always gone hand in hand throughout history, and the aesthetic standard of a given period has served the ideological interests of the ruling class. During the Renaissance, fair, pale skin was a prized signifier of high social status, while sun-darkened skin became synonymous with lower classes laboring outside. Today, however, that same sun-kissed complexion is desirable in the West, as an indicator of leisure time, holidays abroad, and the luxury of disposable income. Rosalind Gill, a sociologist and author of Perfect: Feeling Judged on Social Media, emphasizes how self-care, when obsessive, becomes «a way to capitalize on oneself, using time as a means to add value to one's appearance.»

Praising the progressivism in the face of a make-up-free Pamela Anderson at Paris Fashion Week and adhering to trends like "clean girl" and "quiet luxury," we not only reveal the privilege imbalance towards a well-connoted human category but also confirm that, in an era where diversity seems to be at least suggested, natural beauty remains a marketing story told by big pharma and beauty giants to sell creams and supplements. It's a pyramid that spares no one, a vicious cycle that involves everyone at different levels, from teenagers who dedicate their savings to rhinoplasty and mastectomies to celebrities who prefer a post-party selfie with an IV in their arm to aspirin. In a society that claims to be inclusive but actually wants us to be increasingly beautiful, healthy, and young, coming to terms with our reflection in the mirror, accepting our imperfections (even mortality), is almost a fleeting and daily sublimation of the class struggle. We'd better hurry up before growing old becomes something for the poor.