ABSTRACT
This chapter brings into focus the discursive biomedicalization of ageing in women and the trope of recuperative whiteness as a symbolic embodiment of agelessness. These two themes, the biomedicalization of ageing and recuperative whiteness as a marker of agelessness, are recurring features of the emerging skin-whitening and anti-ageing industry. As a discourse, practice and industry, skin-whitening with anti-ageing aims is premised on restoring a youthful appearance to ageing white women. Consequently, this chapter examines how the anti-ageing discourse came to be associated with the biomedicalization of visible signs of ageing, such as ‘age spots’ and ‘hyper-pigmentation’, especially in white middle-aged women. This is done by tracing the historical roots and contemporary relevance of the material and symbolic association of youthful feminine appearance with regenerative whiteness. The primary objective of this analysis is to reveal how promotions for skin brighteners and skin whiteners promulgate ageless beauty, primarily to white women. The aim of this undertaking is to reveal the extent to which discursive conflation of anti-ageing wellness with the skin-whitening industry is deeply implicated in ageism, sexism and the pathologizing of women’s bodies and skin. When read through contemporary dynamics of science, ecology, gender, race and class relations of power, advertisements for anti-ageing therapeutic whiteness exploit white middle-class women’s preoccupation with premature ageing and their desire to shield their bodies from the harmful effects of environmental deterioration, climate change and urban pollution.
