Should post 50s avoid or embrace cosmetic surgery?
Baby Boomers are a transformative generation, and they are approaching midlife with the same rebelliousness and rule-breaking spirit that has characterized their behavior over the last half century. They simply won't take aging lying down.
But along with the youthful attitude toward work and health comes the shadow side -- a relentless pressure to appear as young as one feels inside, which has led to a boom in cosmetic surgery. Americans spent $10 billion on procedures in 2011.
There are some who swear off the trend. Actress Cate Blanchett, 42, recently told Fashionista.com: "There’s been a decade or so of people doing intervention with their face and their body. Now that we’re emerging from that people are seeing that long term it’s not so great. ... In the end if you have all that stuff done..in the end you just see the work. It doesn’t fill me with admiration, it fills me with pity."
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Joan Rivers, who has reportedly had more than 700 cosmetic procedures. But as she told Huff/Post50: "I don't give a damn what people think. If you don't like my opinion, too bad. That's the only good thing about age."
In the first installment of our Change My Mind debate series, we asked two women to defend their views on cosmetic surgery.
Speaking against the trend is filmmaker and activist Susan Hess Logeais, who has dealt with body image issues as a ballet dancer, model, actress, filmmaker and social activist.
Her challenger is Deborah Gaines, one of Huff/Post50's most-read bloggers, a veteran journalist and graduate of Yale and Columbia Universities whose writing has been featured in The New Yorker, The American Lawyer, Redbook, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Post.
Join the debate below, and see if Susan or Deborah change your mind.