The Anti-Ageing Cult

“I’m liquid smooth, come touch me, too And feel my skin is plump and full of life I'm in my prime

I'm liquid smooth, come touch me, too I'm at my highest peak, I'm ripe About to fall.”- Mitski Miyawaki

The anti-ageing cult is one kept in a veil of secrecy - we don’t want to be aware of it, but we abide by it every day. Our fear of ageing likely comes from our innate aversion to death and loneliness. Nonetheless, the modern-day age anxiety can be derived from the society’s hyper-fixation on youth and beauty, and its strange handbook on the standards of good health. According to a Groupon survey, the average woman spends about $313 per month on her appearance. This adds up to $3756 per year or $225,360 over the course of a lifetime. We spend a lot on maintaining an appearance that is deemed only as acceptable and barely even recognised. Interestingly, the survey results indicated that people in their 30s on average spend more on anti-aging products than people in their 40s, 50s or 60s. And despite their youthfulness, people in their 20s spend more on average on makeup than any other age group. It is intriguing to investigate how women reaching the end of their “peak” and approaching maturity in their late 30s have more concerns about wrinkles and other elements of ageing than older people who have such features themselves. As such, the anti-ageing industry markets to younger and younger generations, and feeds on the pedantism over presentation that looms over younger women.

Regardless of the beauty and skincare industry, the stigma revolving ageing also roots from the concept of women having the most value in their young years, in terms of both ability and the physical self. It is to no surprise that as male actors age, they get to keep their usual roles as the ‘silver fox’, but as actresses age, they are immediately given a non-romantic role and replaced with a younger counterpart, eliminating any presentation of sexuality for older women. Hollywood drills into our heads that, the older women get, the less they are worth. Women and their desirability are often judged based on looks, we know that. Since beauty is associated with youth, the fear of ageing is ultimately the fear of losing appeal. There is currently a scarcity in the representation of older women that is not exclusive to a caregiving or motherly role in entertainment. Such ignorance induces a sense of ‘invisibility’ to those underrepresented women. A survey from the AARP (2020) shows that more half of women over the age of 50 feel socially isolated from society. Even if it’s a natural process, the act of accepting and, god forbid, showing that you age is shunned upon. Our idea of “fading beauty” is one that rejects and excludes women from feeling like they are not allowed, simply, to be seen.

This rhetoric is further enhanced by the celebs of our time. With hot new surgeries popping out every two months or so, and with celebrities at the forefront of it all, plastic surgery is increasingly becoming normalised, even expected. Cold cucumber water for a clear skin and Botox to get rid of wrinkles. Everyone knows Pilates is the solution to cellulite and skin taping for loose skin. Ultimately, when we see a celeb who hasn’t aged a day since their first appearance on the red carpet, we wonder what is wrong with us. We wonder if the unintrusive “tweakments” we are silently bombarded with by ads and hellish algorithms will make us better. Or at least, included in the new normal. The truly saddening part is that most people stuck in this cycle are young. Way too young to be concerned over whether their cellulite means they will die alone or not. And as the youth are just beginning to find their balance and explore their identities, they are the perfect breeding ground for insecurity. By pushing these anti-aging messages to younger and younger people, we are slowly pumping up our future generations into insecure and glam-obsessed dolts. From 15-step retinol routines for teens to anti-wrinkle straws, no one is safe. We have already seen how smoothening and face-altering filters on social media have every teen in a chokehold, but we don’t really know just how dangerous promoting this is yet. Is immaculate, pore-less skin the new standard? And if so, can anyone really exist online above the age of baby-faced teenagehood?

The anti-aging agenda has been forced into our zeitgeist since forever. In an attempt to extinguish a fire that was never really there, younger women now live under the fear of ageing, wholly consumed by the anti-ageing rhetoric. But as our current beauty ideals of our age start to change, and as 15 becomes the new 25, can women ever really catch a break?