Author Marian Keyes, 57, claims she isn’t a bad feminist for having Botox to make her forehead as ‘smooth as a lake’ – and says men would be given a year off work if they had to go through the menopause
- Marian Keyes, 57, said having Botox treatments doesn’t make her a bad feminist
- Speaking on a podcast the writer said the decision to have Botox was hers alone
- She said she has nothing to apologise for and had Botox to be more ‘inviting’
Author Marian Keyes claims she isn’t a bad feminist simply because she’s had Botox injections that left her forehead ‘smooth as a lake’.
The 57-year-old Irish writer said she was fed up with appearing grumpy and just wanted to look ‘inviting’.
Speaking on The Shift podcast with Sam Baker she said the decision was made entirely because she wanted to, and not because she was under any pressure from internalised misogyny.
Irish author Marian Keyes, 57, (pictured) has said that having Botox and hair extensions to make herself look less ‘cross’ doesn’t make her a bad feminist
Marian said: ‘I am on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and I have had Botox and I dye my hair.
‘I have hair extensions. It is absolutely because I want to. It is not internalised misogyny. I am on HRT to keep my mental health steady.
‘The hair extensions are because I thought it would be fun. The Botox is because I had such a frowny forehead and it made me look really cross and disapproving.
‘Now it as smooth as a lake. It’s not anything I apologise for and it is not so much the anti-ageing thing I do it for – although maybe I am because maybe the frown is a sign of age.
‘I just wanted to look inviting.’
The writer, who began writing short stories while suffering from alcoholism, said she got the beauty treatments despite thinking it is wrong women are only admired while ‘beautiful and skinny’.
Speaking on The Shift podcast with Sam Baker, the Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married author said the decision was made entirely because she wanted to and not because she was under any pressure from internalised misogyny
She said: ‘I have internalised those messages that women are most admired when they are smooth and young and beautiful and skinny. I have internalised all that.
‘I know as a feminist those messages are really wrong. Nevertheless I forgive myself for the parts of me that have that internalised subconscious unconscious misogyny.
‘Really and truly I don’t feel like a bad feminist. I acknowledge I am a feminist living in a patriarchal society.’
She also claimed that if the menopause happened for men they would be given ten years off work and ‘treated with compassion’.
She continued: ‘If menopause happened for men they would be given ten years of work between 45 and 55 and they would be treated with compassion, gentleness and understanding.
‘The medicine they wanted would be made available. The therapy they needed – their lives would be made easier.
‘It would be seen, for men, as a a right of passage, into wisdom.’