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Is Being an Older Woman Really as Bad as ‘The Substance’ Claims?
The film’s gory argument against trashing women past a certain age and misogyny turned inward is quite powerful. But how true is it?
Even if you haven’t seen the film, you probably know from award-season hype that The Substance with Demi Moore is about an aging film star whose TV career tanks when the producers decide she’s too old. In a fit of despair and in order to keep her job, she signs up for injections of a black market “substance” that promises to keep her young forever.
But as in all Faustian deals — even when the devil is a hypodermic needle — there’s a catch. When the substance releases a 20-something version of herself (Margaret Qualley), the younger self must hibernate every seven days in order to replenish the older version. That’s because the older version is her “real” self — the Source. The younger one is just a copy. If the seven-day rule is not strictly adhered to, things will go very, very bad.
Which of course they do.
By turns funny and tragic, The Substance is concerned with an older woman’s internalization of misogyny. Her addiction to the false praise of “fans” who claim to love her. And her failure to anchor herself in any resource beyond her…
