On the Path to 60 #2: "At 50 it Stops"

And thank goodness for that. "The Substance" and me.

My childish crayon drawing of a compass.

This is the second installment of On the Path to 60, a series about my experiences in the year approaching my next decade, and the third act of my life. I turned 59 in early October, 2024, and I’ll turn 60 in October, 2025. I’m a little freaked out about it!

In this series I’ll write about what it means for a Gen-X latchkey kid like me to turn 60, from various angles—what I’m thinking and feeling, what’s caught my attention, certain choices I’m making, things I’m buying, advice and guidance I’m receiving, representations of aging in art, and more.

This series is one of two features in Oldster Magazine that are exclusively for paid subscribers. (The other is the Ask the East Village Yenta advice column.) If you’d like to read this series—and support the work I’m doing here at Oldster—please consider becoming a paid subscriber. - Sari Botton

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Margaret Qualley and Demi Moore in The Substance. Photo via Mubi.

Typically I avoid the hell out of horror movies, but two weeks ago I made an exception. I took myself to a matinee of The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s dark satire about (I think?) the double-edged sword of gendered ageism and the Faustian bargains it leads some women to make in an effort to keep up with the culture’s ridiculous, punishing beauty standards.

I was surprised by what it brought up for me—probably not what Fargeat intended.