Invisible golden girls? Post-feminist discourses and female ageing bodies in contemporary television fiction

Abstract

The popular television series The Golden Girls (1985-1992) seems to be an exception in the history of the representation of third-age women femininities and bodies in television fiction. This series about four mature women living in the same house in Miami made ageing women visible in television representations. Older women are generally invisible in popular television fiction. Despite this absence, a discourse on ageing and femininities is present in all sorts of popular media texts. We will question post-feminist discourses on ageing bodies and femininities. Are the post-feminist claims regarding ageing bodies present in popular television fiction? Moreover, are these discourses represented by the portrayal of ageing bodies? We will analyse the representations of ageing femininities in television fiction labelled as "post-feminist television fiction. " The series Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, and Girls will be studied using a textual analysis to look for discourses on ageing female bodies and their particularities in relation to post-feminism. We distinguished a limited set of three sets of discourses (losing femininity, masking of ageing, and the wisdom of ageing) on ageing femininities. Although ageing feminine bodies are absent, a discourse on ageing, "good" ageing, and acceptance of ageing is present in the narration in all three series. The discourse on the masking of ageing, however, is predominant.

Diversity and age stereotypes in portrayals of older adults in popular American primetime television series

“…Although this is a valid point, the amount of media representation still matters, because it indicates the perceived status of a group in a society. Persisting under-representation of older adults in the media exemplifies a widespread cultural fixation with youth and rejection of old age (Van Bauwel, 2018). It can be interpreted as a signal that the value and respect a person deserves decreases with age (Lauzen and Dozier, 2005).…”

“…The bias towards the young-old group among older adults is in line with contemporary discourses on ageing which promote an image of a successful, healthy and active ageing experience (Whelehan and Gwynne, 2014). The discourse on successful ageing is more commonly associated with older adults who have not yet reached their mid-seventies, in comparison to those in their late seventies and older – to whom more traditional narratives of decline and loss still apply (Van Bauwel, 2018).…”

“…In popular culture, ageing is typically reduced to loss of youth and portrayed as a problem to be dealt with by hiding and masking it as long as possible (Van Bauwel, 2018). Unsurprisingly, then, despite being the fastest growing age group in American society and avid television viewers, older adults have been marginally represented in media for decades ( e.g.…”

Let’s Get Loud: Intersectionally Studying the Super Bowl’s Halftime Show

“…These concerns in relation to sexualisation are often more explicit when referring to girls or women of age. Ageing women are not supposed to express any female sexual agency or empowerment (Van Bauwel, 2018), including the idea that ageing bodies, and especially feminine bodies, are not supposed to be visible. However, a fit body that expresses health and agelessness is also admired, as we see in the comments on the show of Shakira and Lopez.…”

How powerful is the female gaze? The implication of using male celebrities for promoting female cosmetics in China

“…This statement indicated that women in a postfeminist context acknowledge the plurality and difficulty in defining feminism, and thus consciously making decisions to find alternative ways of exerting agency. Van Bauwel (2018) further explained that McRobbie’s understanding of postfeminism “has been defined as a ‘double entanglement,’ which refers to the coexistence of neoconservative values and liberal values or ‘burgeoning post-feminist culture’” (p. 23). Here, the “undoing” of feminism does not abandon the core feminist agenda of fighting patriarchy but indicates that there have been contested interpretations of female agency.…”