Should anti-ageing creams be renamed?

There is a lot of pressure on women to look younger. Photo / Getty Images

Anti-ageing creams should be renamed to remove the pressure on women to look younger, campaigners have said.

Beauty products for older women could instead be marketed as 'for mature skin', they suggest.

Sam Smethers, former chief executive of women's equality group the Fawcett Society, said it was wrong for women to feel they should battle the signs of getting older.

She said: "Anti-ageing is all about resisting ageing, and our sort of objectification of women.

"It goes back to the fact that you have to constantly change and manage your appearance to be younger than you actually are.

"There is huge pressure on women to do that, much more so than there is on men."

Speaking to the Daily Mail after the International Longevity Centre conference in London, she said: "I think someone like Helen Mirren or Judi Dench are fantastic about being their age. But we have all slipped into that narrative of 'you are looking good for your age'."

Miss Mirren, 72, has spoken of her disdain for the term 'anti-ageing'. The actress, who has suggested that moisturiser 'probably does f*** all', told US magazine Allure in August: "This word, 'anti-ageing' ...we know we're getting older. You just want to look and feel as great as you can on a daily basis."

Cosmetics firm Dove has also started to avoid the word, instead selling 'Pro Age' products, while other beauty ranges use terms including 'youth liberator', 'lift and luminate' and 'line interception'.

Miss Smethers added that many women have 'bought in' to anti-ageing and want to hear that they look young for their age. She said: "As a woman you are seeking that validation, that I look younger than I am. Why do I need that?"

Miss Smethers' comments were backed by Kate Jopling, formerly of Help The Aged, who said: "Imagine having a cream on your shelf ...that said 'anti-women cream'.

"You can't imagine the normalisation of that form of negativity about a fundamental characteristic."

She added: "These products had a perfectly good name – they were 'creams for a mature skin' – and they changed it. There is nothing wrong with just describing what the cream is for and what it is good at. It is not very hard."