The beauty standards imposed on women and The Substance…

It is good for the soul to step away from Turkey’s suffocating political agenda and open windows of fresh air to life—to watch cinema and theater, and to reflect on them... This week, I want to take a break from politics and talk to you about The Substance…

“The Substance” has been a film that has made quite a splash recently. Written and directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, who won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival, the film has been the subject of numerous articles and commentaries by film critics. The Substance has invigorated a Hollywood cinema that has long been starved for films with artistic substance. So much so that lead actress Demi Moore, rising from the ashes with her performance in the film, received the Golden Globe, the first award of her 45-year cinematic journey. She was even nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress. It can easily be said that Moore, who stars in The Substance, delivers the most impressive performance of her artistic career.

To briefly summarize the plot, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a screen star approaching her 50s, is no longer wanted by the head of the channel she works for on the grounds that she has lost her youth and beauty. Finding herself desperate, the star Elizabeth finds a solution in a risky procedure to create a younger version of herself, Sue (Margaret Qualley), even literally giving birth to her from her own back. In The Substance, the greatest tragedy for Elizabeth, who is in search of a better version of herself, is that she cannot let go of the younger version she becomes increasingly addicted to, even as it consumes her.

Categorized as a horror film, it is the kind of movie that will make you uncomfortable and uneasy with many of its scenes. The film, which interprets the concept of youth and beauty imposed on women by society—and predominantly by men—with a critical eye, impressed me quite a bit.

The male-dominated beauty standard imposed on women is not unique to Hollywood stars; it is a significant problem experienced by women universally. It brings to mind the complaint made a year ago by successful actress Esra Dermancıoğlu: “Why are only actors in their twenties chosen for series? Are there no women/men over 40 in real life?” It was a justified criticism. Just as the capitalist perspective shapes the prototype of women we watch in series and films, the influence of popular culture has added to this, rapidly commodifying women. All the stories in series and films have become trapped in a narrow circle that only exists within certain age ranges, ignoring people outside that framework. Ultimately, this shallow perspective has caused every script written to be woven with similar stories. Boring, mediocre, predictable, repetitive works…

So, is this imposed beauty standard only valid in the film industry? Of course not.

It is one of the glass ceilings that women encounter in every area of life—at work, at school, in social life, and within the family circle. No matter how developed and competent your education, background, experience, personality, and character may be, if you do not have a physique that fits the beauty standards of the new era, it is easy to stumble and hit invisible barriers. Moreover, the fact that women sometimes succumb to all these impositions, using weight-loss drugs that may even cost them their lives to “find a better version of themselves,” undergoing back-alley aesthetic procedures, or starving themselves into illness are some of the dramatic consequences we frequently hear about...

Look at what the French philosopher and women's rights advocate Luce Irigaray says:

“Women’s beauty is always thought of as an ornament designed, in the end, to attract the other.

It is almost never perceived as a manifestation, an appearance, a phenomenon of interiority—whether it be love, thought, or flesh. We usually look at ourselves in the mirror to please someone else. We rarely look to question the state of our body or soul, and rarely do we look for ourselves and to seek our own existence.”

I hope that no matter your age, you look in the mirror for yourself and for your soul…