Creating a patchwork of unruliness: The grumpy old woman as affect alien

Vuyst, Sara De

doi:10.1177/13678779211041378

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Through centering the emotional journey of a woman in her 60s in the narrative, The Good Fight challenges traditional representations of older women in the media, who have been mostly associated with emotions such as unhappiness, depression, fastidiousness, and anger (De Vuyst 2022). Challenging these stereotypes, “negative” emotions appear to be the catalyst for much of Diane’s political change and grassroots mobilization, reframing the longstanding association of these emotions with older femininity, by making them politically productive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the “grumpy old woman” stereotype is a longstanding one in popular culture, whereby older women are often depicted as sad, depressed, dissatisfied, and/or aggressively unhappy (Dolan and Tincknell 2012; Hant 2007; Segal 2013). Conversely, happiness in older age for women is depicted through anti-aging discourses that focus on beauty and attractiveness, as well as suggestions to maintain a positive attitude to avoid being perceived as “grumpy” (De Vuyst 2022). De Vuyst (2022, 5) offers a different reading of “negative” emotions in older age in media culture, by highlighting how “grumpiness can be embraced in a strategy of resistance against dominant happiness scripts.”…”

Section: Affect Emotion and The Psychic Life Of Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, happiness in older age for women is depicted through anti-aging discourses that focus on beauty and attractiveness, as well as suggestions to maintain a positive attitude to avoid being perceived as “grumpy” (De Vuyst 2022). De Vuyst (2022, 5) offers a different reading of “negative” emotions in older age in media culture, by highlighting how “grumpiness can be embraced in a strategy of resistance against dominant happiness scripts.”…”

Section: Affect Emotion and The Psychic Life Of Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the framing of the menopause in terms of a medical condition, and the overall association of hormone fluctuations with female emotion throughout the life course, participate in normative discourses about the irritability of women in older age (Irni 2009). These discourses manifest culturally through the stereotype of the “cranky” or “grumpy” older woman, characterized as unhappy, difficult, and angry (De Vuyst 2022; Dolan and Tincknell 2012; Hant 2007; Segal 2013).…”

Section: The Gendered Politics Of Emotions In the Trump Eramentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Politics of Female Anger in Older Age: The Good Fight, Older Femininity and Political Change

Fegitz

2022

Television & New Media

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This article identifies an important conversation about the politics of female anger in older age in the CBS show The Good Fight (2017–). By centring the narrative around the emotional life of a woman in her 60s, the show offers older femininity as a site for discussing social and political changes that have occurred in the USA in the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump. Through a close analysis of the four seasons that were released before the Covid-19 pandemic, this article maps the emotional journey of Diane Lockheart through her personal, economic, and political crises, showing how different emotions are connected with Diane’s engagement—and at times disengagement—with politics. Ultimately, the article contributes to the field of feminist cultural studies by exploring the way The Good Fight offers female anger in older age as key to feminist engagement and political change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Affect Emotion and The Psychic Life Of Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Affect Emotion and The Psychic Life Of Neoliberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Gendered Politics Of Emotions In the Trump Eramentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Politics of Female Anger in Older Age: The Good Fight, Older Femininity and Political Change

Fegitz

2022

Television & New Media

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“…They dance and sing to resist inequalities. These representations all offer us new visions of gender, sexuality, and ageing that counter pre-existing norms of beauty, heteronormative desirability, and anti-ageing (see also De Vuyst, 2021). SZ: Continuing on Ladan and Sara's notes, I like to revisit the assemblage thinking, as there is a connection with intersectional thought.…”

Section: Egmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pushing Intersectionality, Hybridity, and (Inter)Disciplinary Research on Digitality to Its Limits

Geerts

Rahbari

Evolvi

et al. 2022

jdsr

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During the past two decades or so, the emergence and ever-accelerating development of digital media have sparked scholarly interest, debates, and complex challenges across many disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. Within this diverse scholarship, the research on digitality, gender, sexuality, and embodiment has contributed substantially to many academic fields, such as media studies, sociology, religion, philosophy, and education studies. As a part of the special issue “Gender, Sexuality, and Embodiment in Digital Spheres: Connecting Intersectionality and Digitality,” this roundtable consists of a conversation between five researchers from different (inter)disciplinary locations, all addressing matters of methodology, intersectionality, positionality, and theory in relation to the topics of gender, sexuality, and embodiment in digital spheres. Said roundtable begins with a critical self-positioning of the participants’ (inter)disciplinary and embodied locations using examples from their own research. The conversation then progresses to how these researchers have employed contemporary theories, conceptual vocabularies, methods, and analyses of gender, sexuality, and embodiment in digital spheres to then conclude with some ethico-political notes about collaborations between scholars and (digital) activists.

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Redrawing women’s later-in-life desires: Representations of ageing femininities, intimacies and the promise of happiness in graphic novels

Vuyst

2022

European Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article explores representations of ageing femininities and later-in-life intimacies based on a critical, contextualised reading of two graphic novels. Narratives of later life are deeply entangled with notions of happiness. While ageing has usually been associated with decay, loss and an irreversible path to unhappiness, in recent years, there has been a shift towards a more rosy picture of an active, social, happy and fulfilling later-in-life. These happiness scripts contain a set of gendered instructions on how to achieve the good life in old age. For ageing women, they include expectations about beauty and the body, sexual desires and the temporal organisation of the life course. This article draws on Sara Ahmed’s critique on the disciplinary dynamics of the promise of happiness and the work that emotions do to value certain bodies, expressions of sexuality and life choices as good for older women and others as bad. The study found that the two graphic novels analysed ‘Bloesems in de herfst’ (Blossoms in Autumn, 2018) by Zidrou and Aimée De Jongh and ‘Bingo Love’ (2018) by Tee Franklin and Jen St-Onge, both confirm and challenge normative ideas about gender, ageing and sexuality. However, while both graphic novels redraw some lines of the prevailing scripts of happiness for ageing women, they do not erase them entirely from the frame. In the end, I will take the discussion one step further by reflecting on how representations of older women can destabilise norms about gender, sexuality and ageing and subvert disciplinary narratives about later life happiness.

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Creating a patchwork of unruliness: The grumpy old woman as affect alien

Cited by 6 publications

References 49 publications

The Politics of Female Anger in Older Age: The Good Fight, Older Femininity and Political Change

The Politics of Female Anger in Older Age: The Good Fight, Older Femininity and Political Change

Pushing Intersectionality, Hybridity, and (Inter)Disciplinary Research on Digitality to Its Limits

Redrawing women’s later-in-life desires: Representations of ageing femininities, intimacies and the promise of happiness in graphic novels

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