On the Politics of Anti-Ageing: Beauty Standards are rooted in Paedophilia and Misogyny*

“If there is anything behind a face, that face improves with age.”
~ Karen de Crow

I am climbing up the stairs that lead to our apartment, tiptoeing into my mother’s colossal dressing room to hide from the other kids. Rather than hide, I stand by the door and stare at my mother. She is wrapped in a cream cotton towel, water dripping from her face and body. I watch her rub blue seal Vaseline on her wet skin, comb out her shea butter infused hair and slip into a big pair of trousers under large boubou blouse.

My mother had a kind of understated beauty; one that could have graced any billboard or magazine cover. But she never used expensive skincare products and except for the ponds oil-control face powder she dabbed on her face, she did not wear any makeup. I thought it was because she was so disarmingly unaware of her own striking beauty. When she smiled, I couldn’t help but smile along too. To be around her was to feel that I too was someone, that I had been warmed in the golden rays of the sun even on a hazy harmattan morning.

Over the years, as I watched her grow with time, I saw the skin around her eyes drooping, the creases on her face deepening, her hairline receding and the malaise…