Lisa Ray opens up about the pressure to look younger in film industry
Mumbai, Aug 11
Actress Lisa Ray has opened up about ageing, beauty standards, and the pressure women face to conform to unrealistic expectations of appearance.
Reflecting on her own experiences in the industry, she spoke about how society's constant focus on youth and physical appearance can create anxiety among women. Sharing a note on Instagram, the 'Four More Shots Please!' actress recalled reading Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth in her late teens and described the book as timely for someone entering an industry with strong opinions about how women should look. She said the book helped her understand the fear surrounding ageing, weight, wrinkles, grey hair, cellulite and the pressure to remain desirable.
Lisa shared a note that read, "If tomorrow, women woke up and decided they really liked their bodies, just think how many industries would go out of business.- Dr.GailDines." For the caption, she wrote, "This quote. I first read Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth in my late teens - which, in retrospect, was rather good timing for a girl entering an industry with very strong opinions about what women should look like. The book gave language to something I could already feel: fear is very good for business. Fear of ageing. Fear of gaining weight. Fear of wrinkles, softness, grey hair, cellulite, irrelevance. Fear that somewhere, somehow, another woman is doing "woman" better than you are.
"And perhaps the most exhausting part is not even what we buy because of that fear. It's the low-level anxiety it installs in us - the constant background hum of not enough. Not thin enough. Young enough. Smooth enough. Desirable enough. Disciplined enough."
The 'Nethaji' actress added, "I've spent much of my life inside industries that participate in this machinery, so I'm not pretending I've observed it from some morally superior mountaintop. I've benefited from beauty standards. I've performed them. I've also been diminished by them. But one of the delicious gifts of midlife is that some of the old programming starts to malfunction. You begin to see the trick. And once you see it, it becomes much harder to sell you your own inadequacy."
Lisa Ray concluded by saying, "At 54, I'm far more interested in inhabiting my body than correcting it. Strengthening it. Listening to it. Enjoying it. Ageing in it. Imagine the collective exhale if women stopped waking up every morning feeling like a problem requiring improvement, but instead focused on health, tuning into their bodies, focusing on getting strong, supporting their physical, mental and spiritual needs, listening to their gut and heart and celebrating every beautifully flawed moment of their lives! Now that would be disruptive. And possibly terrible for quarterly sales."
— IANS
Reader Comments
Respect for Lisa Ray for being so honest. But I also think the conversation needs to include men - we face these pressures too, just in different ways. Greying hair, receding hairline, maintaining a certain physique. However, the scale is definitely skewed, and women bear the brunt far more. It's good to see celebrities from the industry acknowledging this reality and using their platform to challenge it.
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf - what a book! I read it during my college days in Delhi and it completely changed how I viewed beauty standards. And Lisa is absolutely right about the fear economy. India's beauty and wellness industry is worth crores, and the entire business model runs on making us feel inadequate. We need more conversations like this. At 54, she's more confident than ever and that's so inspiring! ✨
I appreciate the sentiment, but isn't this slightly privileged coming from a Bollywood actress? Most Indian women are worried about putting food on the table, not about "grey hair" or "cellulite." Our rural women work in fields, our urban working women are fighting for safety and equal pay. While the conversation about beauty standards is important, we can't ignore that this is a middle and upper-class problem in our country. Just my honest observation.
As a dermatologist in Bengaluru, I see this anxiety every single day - and it's getting worse with Instagram filters and AI beauty apps. Young girls come in with unrealistic expectations, wanting to look like edited versions of themselves. Lisa's point about "the machinery" is so accurate. The beauty industry is thriving on our insecurities. I wish more celebrities would speak up like this instead of promoting fairness creams and anti-aging products they don't even use themselves. 🎯
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