Society has always had an issue with women aging. As cosmetic surgery becomes cleverer, more subtle, and more widespread across women in the public eye, it can feel taboo to allow the smile lines to stay, the grey hairs to amass. To not seek to dye, to slim, to trim, to tighten, to pull, to tweak, to cover up – no, to defy! – the physical symptoms of the inexorable human process of getting older. Men mature like fine women; women decay like compost. Or so we’re led to believe.

But even in that context, the decision of a certain classic British brand to give their older, maternal (cartoon!) figure a ‘glow-up’ which, essentially, amounts to making her look considerably younger, feels like we may have entered the twilight zone.

That’s right, Aunt Bessie, long-time Aunt of the nation, provider of roast-saving, zero-effort, shove-’em-in-the-oven yorkshire puddings has gone all Dorian Gray on us. While her original portrait sits in an attic somewhere, presumably getting even older and more repulsive, the new-and-improved........

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