Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism Harleys and Hormones

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.

Imelda Whelehan is Professor of English and Gender Studies and Pro Vice Chancellor (Research Training) at the University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research focuses on feminist thought, popular fiction and film, and adaptation studies. Recent books include Screen Adaptation (with D. Cartmell, 2010), The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen (ed. with D. Cartmell, 2007) and The Feminist Bestseller (2005). She is also Co-Editor of the journal Adaptation and Associate Editor of Contemporary Women's Writing (OUP). She is currently writing on bras and post-war Hollywood.

Joel Gwynne is Assistant Professor of English at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is the author/co-editor of several books on contemporary literature and visual culture, including Sexuality and Contemporary Literature (2012), Erotic Memoirs and Postfeminism: The Politics of Pleasure (2013) and Postfeminism and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (2013). His essays have appeared in journals such as Journal of Gender Studies, Women's Studies International Forum, Journal of Contemporary Asia and Feminist Theory.

Notes 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