Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination and mental illness.

Shields’s book is about the intersection of misogyny and ageism, two forms of oppression. She centers how ageism is gendered and discusses its effect on women who experience and internalize it. Gendered ageism suggests that women are less valuable as they age and their fertility wanes. It also contends that older women are less physically attractive and encourages them to maintain their youthful looks. Media perpetuates this ageism by elevating youth and beauty, limiting aging women’s representation, and marketing anti-aging products to women. Shields counters this perspective by arguing that midlife is an exciting time of freedom for women, who should embrace this new phase of life.

Shields’s first book, released in 2005, dealt with her experience of postpartum depression. She revealed that taking antidepressants helped her overcome the condition. Soon after the book’s publication, actor Tom Cruise criticized Shields during an interview with the Today Show, an event that she refers to as “Cruise-gate.” He stated that she was irresponsible for discussing her use of medication and countered that women should rely instead on exercise and vitamins. Shields wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, hitting back at Cruise and arguing that he had no business criticizing a woman’s experience with the illness.