[TV Review]Busted on wrinkles, but aiming for beauty

So the story about the surge of the so-called “Gold Misses” had the honor of hitting the front page of the JoongAng Daily on Monday. But stories about even “Platinum Misses” are not strikingly new to women like me, who are single and long past the peak of their 20s. Still, looking at the front page, I wondered if I truly was a Gold Miss. After all, membership is strictly limited. You have to earn a certain salary, work out at a classy gym and care enough to keep your skin looking as fresh as that of a woman in her 20s.
Well, I’d be happy to be a “Silver Miss.” Or is this just my poor excuse for being lazy? I don’t give a fig when my mother teases me about being a “Bronze Miss.” But I admit I was a little hurt when my boyfriend, who’s younger than me, said I’d gained weight.
Still, I choose the pursuit of happiness as a couch potato, and felt gratified when I saw “Age of Love,” an NBC show from last summer that just debuted on On Style. This cable channel cemented its popularity with constant reruns of “Sex and the City.” It’s regularly awash with ads for luxury goods and tidbits about Hollywood. In fact, this channel is my guilty pleasure. It’s the channel I always tune in to, especially for some fun jeering at the shows.
And Age of Love, airing every Saturday night at 10 p.m. with several reruns on weekdays, is no exception.
This is another spin-off from romance-themed reality shows that we see a lot of these days. The twist is tennis ace Mark Philippoussis, who chooses a date from hot 20-something girls and mature, beautiful and rich women in their 40s. I am not rich and I am not in my 20s. So all I can do is watch and give sour reviews. So this is the battle between “Gold Misses” and the hot lasses.
This sought-after tennis player tries hard to remain cool after learning about the premise ― if he wasn’t aware of the setup, he acts surprised really well. Of course, he murmurs cliches like, “Age is nothing but a number.” I say that, too, to my poor boyfriend. He always complains about how much more “mature” he is than me despite the age difference, especially when I badger him about the latest dolls from my favorite Japanese animation, “Sergeant Keroro.” Still, I know that age can be more than a number in reality, and I am 99 percent sure that the tennis star didn’t really believe what he was saying.
The 40-something women, meanwhile, try so hard, almost to the point of desperation, to look older but fun at the same time. To see them in flashy jerseys and roller skating was not an altogether pleasant sight.
Then there are also the catty 20-something women who say that they “pity” the 40-somethings for their drooping skin and lack of husbands.
Apparently they are getting paid fat paychecks, or they are so silly that they are counting their days to their 30s and 40s.
In the first couple of episodes ― I tune into the show every week while at the same time denouncing it ― the show tried to say that the 40-something women could be more attractive. They showed Mark the Ace dreaming about fun conversations with older ladies while swimming in silence with glamour girls in their 20s.
In my view, this was quite an insult to the more mature women. The message seemed to be that 40-somethings are desperate to need loving care from the producers. Rather, I wanted the show to introduce the details of the cosmetic line that the 40-something women use. They know how to look good despite their advanced years.
Maybe I have to wait a few more episodes to get the lowdown on the cosmetics. Something has to be done about the wrinkling skin around my eyes.
I may not be “Gold Miss” material, but I’m human and I care about aesthetics for my own sake.

By Chun Su jin [sujiney@joongang.co.kr]