Table Of ContentNotes on Contributors Introduction: The 'Greying' of Popular Culture?; Imelda Whelehan and Joel Gwynne 1. Conscientious Objections: Feminism, Fiction and the Phoney War on Ageing; Liz Byrski 2. Fiction or polemic? Transcending the Ageing Body in Popular Women's Fiction; Imelda Whelehan 3. 'Mrs Robinson seeks Benjamin': Cougars, Popular Memoirs and the Quest for Fulfillment in Midlife and Beyond; Joel Gwynne 4. Sexing-up the Midlife Woman: Cultural Representations of Ageing, Femininity, and the Sexy Body; Sharron Hinchliff 5. Paternalizing the Rejuvenation of Later Life Masculinity in Twenty-First Century Film; Hannah Hamad 6. Too Old For This Shit?: On Aging Tough Guys; Dominic Lennard 7. 'The (un-Botoxed) Face of a Hollywood Revolution': Meryl Streep and the 'Greying' of Mainstream Cinema; Deborah Jermyn 8. Grown Up Girls: Newspaper Reviews of Ageing Women in Pop; Lynne Hibberd 9. Mature Meryl and Hot Helen: Hollywood, Gossip and the 'Appropriately' Ageing Actress; Kirsty Fairclough-Isaacs 10. Funny Old Girls: Representing Older Women in British Television Comedy; Rosie White 11. Silence Isn't Golden, Girls: The Cross-Generational Comedy of 'America's Grandma' Betty White; Elizabeth Rawitsch 12. The Older Mother in One Born Every Minute ; Georgina Ellen O'Brien Hill 13. Women, Travelling and Later Life; Sarah Falcus and Katsura Sako 14. Kane and Edgar: Playing with Age in Film; Dee Michell, Casey Tonkin and Penelope Eate 15. Beyond Wicked Witches And Fairy Godparents: Ageing and Gender in Children's Fantasy on Screen; Rebecca-Anne C. Do Rozario and Deb Waterhouse-Watson Index
SynopsisThe past decade has seen an increase in popular cultural representations of ageing, in response to the realities of an ageing Western population and an acknowledgement of the economic significance of consumption by seniors. Yet, while contemporary film often depicts late middle to old age as a time of renewal and acceptance, most popular depictions of ageing focus on images of loss, decline, and the fear of physically ageing 'naturally'. Ageing in popular culture is a battlefield, with increasing numbers of euphemisms used to disguise the fact of age. Feminist discourse has kept forever young, even though some of its most eminent proponents are ageing and dying. In the field of popular cultural studies the emphasis on the discourse of postfeminism and the 'girling' of culture has foregrounded the concerns of young women at the expense of a focus on older women, or what 'gender' means for middle-aged to older people generally. This collection demonstrates how popular culture constructs ageing as a perilous experience for not only women but also for men, while also underscoring the possibilities (and problems) of positive representations of ageing in the wider culture and in feminist criticism., The past decade has seen an increase in popular cultural representations of ageing, in response to the realities of an ageing Western population and an acknowledgement of the economic significance of consumption by seniors. Yet, while contemporary film often depicts late middle to old age as a time of renewal and acceptance, most popular depictions of ageing focus on images of loss, decline, and the fear of physically ageing 'naturally'. Ageing in popular culture is a battlefield, with increasing numbers of euphemisms used to disguise the fact of age. Feminist discourse has kept forever young, even though some of its most eminent proponents are ageing and dying. In the field of popular cultural studies the emphasis on the discourse of postfeminism and the 'girling' of culture has foregrounded the concerns of young women at the expense of a focus on older women, or what 'gender' means for middle-aged to older people generally. This collection demonstrates how popular culture constructs ageing as a perilous experience for not only women but also for men, while also underscoring the possibilities (and problems) of positive representations of ageing in the wider culture and in feminist criticism., 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.