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MAP THE SYSTEM: Happiness in injection and how to earn 25 milliards a year

Publication at Faculty of Humanities |
2022

Abstract

Ageing is the greatest achievement of humanity: we age because we do not die prematurely. Yet it is still not accepted as something to "look forward to".

This is mainly due to low levels of health, but also to the social stigma of old age and its visuality. Being old or even just "looking old" is a source of gendered disadvantages.

Anti-ageing is an umbrella term for a system with many actors, goals, and levels that seeks to slow, stop, reverse, or at least mask ageing. By mapping the system, we draw attention to the social inequalities built into how and to whom anti-ageing offers its solutions and look for neuralgic points where (primarily female) bodies are disciplined and subordinated.

We identify key actors who are attempting to change/improve the status quo and suggest leverage points that, ideally, would lead to a state of 'equal bodies'.