Forty years ago in a galaxy far far away

I haven't yet seen the Star Wars film but I'm looking forward to it (and meanwhile I'm now reading The Last Command: Star Wars (The Thrawn Trilogy)). Today I saw a commentary by Cornell psych professor Peggy Decker: Carrie Fisher's aging gets judged; Harrison Ford's doesn't ...

Nearly as predictable as the record-breaking box office numbers coming out of JJ Abrams's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is the reaction to the appearance in the film of Carrie Fisher, who reprises a role she first took on some 40 years ago. A number of film goers have taken to Twitter to express disdain that -- spoiler alert! -- Fisher doesn't look as they seemed to expect she might; that the reality of her face interfered, it seems, with their enjoyment of the fantasy flick.

This, in turn, has led to a heated, if tedious, debate over whether or not Fisher has aged well, as if "aging well" was a talent to be celebrated and not an entirely subjective construct used again and again to remind women in Hollywood and elsewhere that they're only as good as their lineless foreheads (which, notably, are nearing extinction). Finally, Fisher was forced to weigh in, taking to Twitter to remind people that she has feelings, and that they were getting hurt, but also that "youth and beauty are not accomplishments." .....





Why does it have to be so hard to be female? :(