What can queer theory, media studies and feminism bring to our understanding of cinema's Lavender Ladies? Addressing the groundswell of scholarly interest in age and its representation, Ageing Femininity on Film explores character tropes for old women in recent film. Alongside a proliferation of negative stereotypes, like the grotesque hag or the dotty old fool, this book illuminates gentility as a key alternative. Across classics of British and American cinema since the 1980s, including Driving Miss Daisy and The Queen, ageing females are empowered by genteel manners. They are amateur sleuths, retired political figures, and everyday women who refuse to be ignored. Studying examples beyond the "politics of pity," this important book unpacks the multi-faceted relationship between gentility and feminine strength.

This book explores the challenges facing women from their mid-forties as they attempt to build/maintain careers in the screen industries. Essays are concerned with the intersection of gender and age on screen and behind the camera and how that can create a ‘double jeopardy’. Existing research in this area has been primarily directed to onscreen representation. Female actors, with notable exceptions, struggle to get screen time and expansive roles as they age. Behind the camera, women 45+ also face challenges and roadblocks; to date, less attention has been directed to this group. The cross-cultural research in this collection offers an analysis of representation, on and off screen, touching on film, television, streaming services and film festivals. It includes an exploration of gendered ageism, age bias and stereotyping. It also highlights the achievements of mature female practitioners who, in their work and working lives, embody a resistance to restrictive cultural discourses about ageing women.

This timely collection engages with representations of women and ageing in literature and visual culture. Acknowledging that cultural conceptions of ageing are constructed and challenged across a variety of media and genres, the editors bring together experts in literature and visual culture to foster a dialogue across disciplines. Exploring the process of ageing in its cultural reflections, refractions and reimaginings, the contributors to Ageing Women in Literature and Visual Culture analyse how artists, writers, directors and performers challenge, and in some cases reaffirm, cultural constructions of ageing women, as well as give voice to ageing women’s subjectivities. The book concludes with an afterword by Germaine Greer which suggests possible avenues for future research.

This book is the first to explore ‘old age’ in cinema at the intersection of gender, ageing, celebrity and genre studies. It takes its cue from the dual meanings of ‘silvering’ – economics and ageing – and explores shifting formulations of ‘old age’ and gender in contemporary cinema. Broad in its scope, the book establishes the importance of silver audiences to the survival of cinema exhibition while also forging connections between the pleasures of ‘old age’ films, consumer culture, the ‘economy of celebrity’ and the gendered silvering of stardom. The chapters examine gendered genres such as romantic comedies, action and heist movies, the prosthetics of costume, and CGI enabled age transformations. Through this analysis, Josephine Dolan teases out the different meanings of ageing masculinity and femininity offered in contemporary cinema. She identifies ageing femininity as the pathologised target of rejuvenation while masculine ageing is seen to enhance an enduring youthfulness. This book has interdisciplinary appeal and will engage scholars interested in ‘old age’ and gender representations in contemporary cinema.

Older women have never been so visible, or so problematised, in popular media culture as now; but what kinds of representations are being offered, and how can we make sense of them in the context of post-feminism and global economic change? Aging Femininities: Troubling Representations offers a timely intervention into the hiatus between the visibility of aging femininity in contemporary circuits of culture and its marginalisation in cultural theory. From “graceful agers” and Saga subscribers, to make-over models and pop divas, each of the essays in this collection interrogates the different manifestations of “aging femininity” in terms of both its historic invisibility and its new visibility. The book forges links between contemporary “lived” experience and feminist cultural theory and research, often through the direct and autobiographical knowledge of the writers themselves. Divided into four sections – Cultural Herstories, Regulations and Transgressions, Problematic Postfeminists? and Divas and Dolls – plus a thought-provoking photo essay, it wrests the discourse of aging away from the twin hegemonies of consumer culture and gerontology to present a diverse selection of essays and positions. Aging Femininities: Troubling Representations establishes the long overlooked richness and the complexity of this field of study.

Age is an important number, but it can also be deceiving. After 40, most people say they feel younger than their years, some lie about their age, and many attempt to hide the signs of growing old. Better with Age addresses the many myths and paradoxes about the aging process. Although most people think of their later years in terms of decline, they can be one of the best times in life. This book presents the latest scientific research about the psychology of aging, coupled with insights from those who have succeeded in doing it well, such as Maya Angelou, Bob Newhart, Jared Diamond, John Glenn, and John Wooden. We are all aging, and many people are concerned about what to expect with advancing years. Retirement, happiness, and brain health are some of the many topics covered in this book. Better with Age shows what we can do now, at any stage in life, to make sure we enjoy old age.

How has popular film, television and fiction responded to the realities of an ageing Western population? This volume analyses this field of representation to argue that, while celebrations of ageing as an inspirational journey are increasing, most depictions still focus on decline and deterioration.