In 2024, the body horror movie The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat, came out. The main characters were played by talented actresses and actors like Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid, and Margaret Qualley.
The movie got pretty great reviews, scoring 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that the movie is “Audaciously gross and wickedly clever.” At the 77th Cannes, it won Best Screenplay, then grossed $77.1 million at the box office, not to mention picking up nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, and various awards and nominations for the actors.
So, if you haven’t already watched it, you might wonder what this ingenious, but gross movie is about. Well, the story follows a fading celebrity, Elizabeth Sparkle, who gets fired by her producer due to her age. So, to get her fame back, she uses a black-market drug to create a younger version of herself, which comes with unforeseen side effects.
Since we don’t want to spoil anything more, you’ll have to watch it for yourself to find out what those side effects were.
Well, the internet wouldn’t be the internet if they didn’t start making memes, even out of a movie with such an important message about female beauty standards, objectification, and ageism. Granted, the movie itself has some satirical moments, so it isn’t a stranger to humor.
Apart from various movie shots being turned into memes for various situations, there was one kind of joke that stood out, in which people put two real-life celebrities side-by-side, saying that if “the substance” were an actual thing, it’s likely that these celebs would be each other’s age-shifted versions.
So, we gathered some of these examples people have shared online and made today’s list. Here you’ll find out who Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish could be the younger doppelgangers for or who'd be the best for a young Hillary Clinton.
While it’s fun to imagine which famous person could be another famous person’s younger/older counterparts, we also shouldn’t forget the message of the movie while doing so. As we already mentioned before, the movie calls out the beauty standards, that are closely related to ageism, that women are expected to adhere to.
As New Wave Feminists advocacy organization said in an interview with Bored Panda, from a very young age, women are inundated with images that are unrealistic.
They explained, “It’s devastating for young girls, but it’s all part of the capitalist machine, because if these marketers can make us feel not enough, then they can also turn around and sell us a potion that promises to make us feel confident and comfortable in our own skin.”
The organization also pointed out that women's beauty is highly based on desirability, which directly correlates to our fertility: “We are seen as good for reproducing, and once we are no longer able to bear children, late stage capitalism see us as less valuable. Expendable.”
To make matters worse, since men are always able to procreate, their aging gets way less scrutinized, only adding another point to the already long list of double standards.
In the movie, the main character feels that the only way she can keep up with these unrealistic expectations is by splitting her existence. When her younger version appears, society's preference for youthful beauty becomes crystal clear, which is heartbreaking, since the human body is meant to get older; we can’t stay young forever.
Taylor Swift, in her song Clara Bow, sang: “Only when your girlish glow flickers just so/Do they let you know”. This lyric (and the whole song, actually) fits perfectly with this message of the movie – a second a woman “loses” her youthful beauty, she starts being deemed less worthy by society. Depressing, isn’t it? Well, it doesn't change the fact that it’s how reality is.
So, basically, what we’re saying is – go ahead and enjoy the memes and jokes about the movie, but don’t lose sight of what it was really about.
