Jim Carrey, Leonardo DiCaprio and how the double standard of male aging may be over

By Rebecca Cope, CNN

(CNN) — It has become a popular internet pastime for people to speculate about what work a female celebrity has had done. Wrinkle-free, taut and glowing visages are analyzed by experts and non-experts alike, often resulting in a diagnosis that includes a facelift, blepharoplasty, fillers, or Botox. Yet in recent months, it is not only famous women whose faces have been studied so intently – it’s the men too.

Case in point, the 51-year-old actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who made headlines at this year’s Academy Awards not for his work, but for his distinctly less-puffy complexion. “He picked the Gua Sha up,” wrote one fan on X. “Finally quit the sauce and discovered water. Also mustache is carrying 40% of this comeback,” said another, referring to DiCaprio’s new Tom Selleck-style mustache. Within hours, cosmetic surgeons were speculating over what he had or not had done, with the inevitable joke that the baseball cap and facemask he was recently seen wearing in public were to hide surgery.

While the reaction to DiCaprio’s “glow-up” has been largely positive, the response to fellow actor Jim Carrey’s changed appearance at the César Awards a few weeks prior was not so kind. The 64-year-old has made an entire career out of his rubbery facial expressions, so in fairness, it was shocking to see how immobile and tight his face now looks after several years out of the spotlight. Some online even started sharing conspiracy theories that Carrey had sent a body double to the ceremony instead of attending himself – a notion further fueled by celebrity impersonator and makeup artist Alexis Stone, who that week shared a photo of the actor on Instagram captioned: “Alexis Stone as Jim Carrey in Paris.” (Stone did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.)

They are hardly the first men in Hollywood to have been the focus of anti-aging cosmetic tweakment rumors. In January, Bradley Cooper denied he had undergone any plastic surgery on the SmartLess podcast, after people had approached him on the street asking what he’d had done. Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling was at the center of a photoshop hoax that professed to show that he’d had his cheeks filled – just months after he had been deemed “too old” by some online critics to play Ken in the Barbie movie. Elsewhere, Barry Keoghan’s seemingly plumper lips and cheeks have led many to speculate that he’s had filler. Speaking on the US broadcaster SiriusXM this week, Keoghan discussed how online abuse about his appearance was affecting his life, to the extent that he does “not want to go outside” anymore.

Some male celebrities have admitted to having “Brotox,” as the procedure, having become much more popular among men, is dubbed. Joe Jonas became the face of Xeomin, an FDA-approved cosmetic injectable viewed as an alternative to Botox, back in 2022, telling Allure at the time: “Looking your best comes from feeling your best. I make it a point to prioritize practices and routines that make me feel like the best version of myself.” Meanwhile, Robbie Williams, Gordon Ramsay, Gene Simmons, Tom Sandeval and Simon Cowell have all discussed their use of Botox in the past.

Outside of Hollywood, more men have also been going under the knife – accounting for 6.5% of total cosmetic surgery procedures in the UK, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. And while there was a slight overall decrease in surgeries between 2023 and 2024, face and neck lifts surged 26%, “suggesting a growing interest in anti-aging procedures among men,” it said. Meanwhile, in the US men accounted for 6% of injectable treatments (which includes Botox and Xeomin) last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

So why are we seeing a rise in men seeking anti-aging tweakments now? This is likely due to a combination of factors, such as the rise of social media, video conferencing (like Zoom), and television shows like “Love Island,” which enforces a “picture-perfect” culture that has become a major source of anxiety, particularly for younger men. At the same time, there is now an entire male community online that is dedicated to so-called “looksmaxxing,” whereby they optimize their facial features by doing everything from “mewing” (putting the tongue to the roof of the mouth to shape the jawline) to getting hair transplants, plastic surgery and even smashing their jaw bones to appear more defined.

“Traditionally, men tended to be valued through the kinds of work that they did – the work that they did with their bodies – but more recently, men’s value is being shifted towards the work that they do on their bodies,” said Chris Haywood, reader in critical masculinity studies at Newcastle University in England. “Yes, being successful at work is something that continues to be valued, but taking care of themselves, the way they dress, the way they look after their bodies, the ways in which they look, has been of increasing importance.”

The shift, however, is at odds with the still-dominant expectation that men should not care about their appearance. Indeed, as Haywood explains, the desire to look good is viewed as a traditionally feminine quality. “Whilst we see the value being transferred to how men look, the older traditional ways of viewing men don’t disappear, it remains still in focus. So what you tend to find is that with straight men particularly, men are currently walking a little bit of a tightrope,” he said.

Historically, men in Hollywood have been granted a lot more leniency when it comes to visibly aging. George Clooney is widely recognized as a “silver fox.” Harrison Ford is described as “distinguished” looking. Yet now, the tide appears to be turning, with men increasingly being judged with the same doubled standards applied to female stars. But is this necessarily a good thing? For some experts, it’s an indication that toxicity around ageing may only be deepening.

“It shows we have attached moral value to youth, and that we read youthfulness as productivity, desirability, health, and even worthiness,” said Lauren Steckles-Young, a lecturer in social studies at the University of Sunderland, in England. “In this, we have seen a blurring between ‘health’ and ‘beauty,’ meaning we assume that if we are attractive, we are healthy, and if we are healthy and attractive, we hold higher moral value. Social media amplifies this by surrounding us with filtered and curated faces that make aging seem like a failure rather than a natural process. Being anti‑aging reflects a culture that struggles to accept imperfection, change, or diversity in appearance.”

Society’s fixation on anti-aging also encourages a view that devalues older generations, added Steckles-Young. “When we remove aging faces from public view, we lose a realistic understanding of what it means to grow older,” she said. “It creates a harmful loop in which younger people fear aging, and older people feel pressure to erase themselves.”

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