Revenge of wrinkles | The Press

In Admirable, Sophie Fontanel tells in the form of a tale the story of Admira, the last wrinkled woman on Earth. The French author and journalist imagined a world without wrinkles, thanks to a drug that makes them disappear. After having dealt with sexual abstinence in Desire and the fact of assuming his white hair in An apparition, this time she addresses the fear of aging. Interview.

How did you come up with the idea for this book?

Several times, during dinners, I realized that I myself was the last wrinkled woman on Earth! In the environment in which I work, whether it’s fashion or even on vacation at the beach, I noticed that there were so many remade women! When we see all these women who don’t want to age and when we ourselves have decided to accept it, it’s weird to see all these false faces, and I say that without judgment, because we can’t judge the fear of someone as time passes. When you find out you’re on the cusp of aging, it’s scary, so you can’t judge people who struggle in their own way.

Is this worrying, this refusal to age?

Yes. In Admirable, I am fulfilling one of our dreams, that of no longer having wrinkles. I’m 61 years old, I’ve never had a Botox injection, but I put good creams on my face… No matter how much we tell ourselves that we’re going to age naturally, we still try not to be completely wrinkled! I imagined that, by taking a single tablet, at a ridiculous price, we could cancel the aging process of the skin, and I show that the world would no longer have any meaning. This isn’t a book about immortality, I just touched on the skin. Imagine that the skin does not age, but the body and bones do. I just touched on appearance and show that these people without wrinkles are not happy, because they are living a lie. It’s the appearance of being young. And they die looking young! We also see that Admira is much happier accepting her wrinkles and the passage of time. Wrinkles are life, they are an expression of the life you have lived. Why delete them?

If this drug that erases wrinkles existed, would we all take it?

I think so, but I think we would end up with situations of rejection. Age is the meaning of life. The evil thing about this drug is that it costs nothing. Anyone can take it, but we see the dysfunctions it causes. Like feeling very tired when you look very young, but you’re 80 years old! This is misleading, because even if you take away my wrinkles, I will not live like a young girl! Admira’s appearance creates a problem in this wrinkle-free world, people rebel and wonder why old people look like young people. Young people need to have a point of reference on their advancing age, and if people of my age send them the message that we should definitely not go in that direction because it’s a precipice and it’s horrible, it’s very distressing. It’s our role to show them that it’s going to be okay.

Has appearance taken on too much importance in our society?

Women still have the impression today that they are validated by the gaze of men. They index their value to being desirable. It focuses in particular on wrinkles, we say to ourselves: if I get older, I will no longer please. Men focus on their erectile capacity; if they are not efficient, they do not exist. Having a little belly, wrinkles, that doesn’t bother them, but not having a hard-on anymore is a disaster. Women and men who understand that beauty lies elsewhere than in appearance are much more fulfilled. You shouldn’t be ashamed of getting old. The majority of older people have an outlook on life that is worth gold, on what resentment, forgiveness, kindness are. There is something very beautiful about age and wrinkles.

Do you think we don’t see enough depictions of wrinkled women?

There are Admira everywhere, you were raised with elderly people around you, but they are not valued. We don’t see them, they are invisible in magazines, in the cinema, on television. In a wrinkled face, there is an authority, an authenticity, but we will never highlight these beautiful wrinkled faces even though they are of great beauty. There is a revolt at the moment. When you see that Ariana Grande starts saying that she doesn’t want to do Botox anymore! At his age, can you imagine! Pamela Anderson who appeared at Paris Fashion Week without makeup, she said: I’m tired of it… something is happening! Maggie Smith is superb as Loewe’s 88-year-old muse, and the cover of Vogue from the Philippines who traveled around the world with this fabulous 106-year-old woman! It’s the revenge of wrinkles! We need to see more models of women with wrinkles and not just those who have aged, but who physically have not changed because they are retouched by magazines in addition to being remade.

Admirable

Sophie Fontanel

Seghers Editions

203 pages