My Neck Wrinkles Supposedly Make Me a Goddess
Thanks for letting me know, social media 😘
“If you're in your 20s or 30s and have this kind of neck wrinkles, you should start addressing them as soon as possible,” read a tweet with 12.2 million views that I scrolled past over the weekend. It was accompanied by pictures of women with horizontal lines across their necks; lines I’m very familiar with because my neck has had the same ones since the day I was born.
I promptly rolled my eyes and moved on with my life because what do you mean by “address” them? Should I greet my neck wrinkles every time I look in the mirror? What am I even supposed to say to them? What happens if I don’t? Am I supposed to get neck ‘tox-ed? The tweet offered no answers.
And before you ask, yes, I always include them in my skincare routine. (I apply everything from my hairline down to my nips, by the way.) Whether my retinol, PDRN, and vitamin C serums are doing anything to them is none of my business because I don’t pay attention to those things. As long as they aren’t causing me physical pain, my neck wrinkles are simply just there.
At this point in the time-space continuum, I’m completely neutral about the existence of my neck wrinkles. That’s not to say I haven’t hated them in the past, though. I’ve spent so much of my life trying to find reasons why I’ve never been in love, why my milkshake isn’t bringing all the boys to the yard, and why I might not be as beautiful as I think I am. I’ve analyzed every minuscule detail of my body, hoping to finally crack the code to my singledom, to prove that I’m truly unlovable. I’ve considered my neck wrinkles as such many times over the years, so obviously that tweet pissed me the fuck off. Consider me rage baited!!!
The split second I hovered over it, though, triggered something algorithmically because now I keep seeing people defending neck wrinkles. For the first time in my life, I saw them called “Venus rings.” Cute! Others claimed they are reminiscent of the lines on conch shells, so they’re “seen as auspicious and often praised in hymns to the Goddess [Venus].”
Venus is the ancient Roman goddess of love, beauty, prosperity, and fertility. Astrologically speaking, I have what’s often known as a difficult Venus placement (Virgo 🙃), which I blame for my physical nitpicking, so I’ll gladly accept my neck wrinkles as a blessing from Venus, proof that I am as hot, sexy, and gorgeous as I believe I am. Thank you, Venus.
Someone else pointed out that Maa Durga, a Hindu warrior goddess, is often depicted with lines on her neck. Fascinated, I did some research and found out:
Maa means mother in Hindi; Durga translates to "the invincible," "unassailable," or "inaccessible.”
Maa Durga symbolizes power, protection, and the destruction of evil to restore cosmic order.
She is often shown with 8 to 18 arms, each holding a weapon.
So, I guess I’m a real-life, living goddess, guys. My neck wrinkles prove it.
xoxox Dev